St Andrews itching to get up and running

Penman, and his United teammates, remain on the sidelines as they wait for the green light to resume training and play once again.

The East of Scotland League remains on a hiatus following the decision to halt all football below Championship level in January.

A decision to allow the nation’s third and fourth tiers to resume play is expected within the coming days, and it’s hoped a similar pathway can be created to allow clubs further down the pyramid to also restart their seasons.

Penman says he’s “desperate” to get back and admits the current lockdown has been tougher to negotiate than last year’s.

The midfielder said: “The first lockdown wasn’t too bad as we had the nice weather and could keep our fitness up with different runs.

"I even managed to get out and kick a ball about on the sunny days, so morale was quite high back then.

"However, I think with this current lockdown, it’s frustrating more than anything that we’re not playing considering we were abiding all rules and playing with no hassle before Christmas.

"As well as that, the weather recently has been terrible and caused a lot of disruption to going runs to keep the fitness up.”

Fitness comes first for Penman who has been working away behind the scenes to help his teammates maintain their levels as much as possible.

He's created fitness plans that he hopes will help Saints hit the ground running as soon as they are back on the pitch.

The 26-year-old added: “ I made up a few high intensity interval training circuit sessions and passed them to the boys to complete if they wanted to which was something different to keep us motivated. It’s obviously affected the mental health of the country, not just us lads not getting to play football, but I can honestly say I’ve had bad days in life recently.

"Getting to the football training or games and working hard with the boys genuinely makes the world of difference.”

The SFA are expected to provide an update by Monday.