St Andrews on lockdown but hope season can resume

The Saints committee is trying to guide the club through a difficult time.

With no football being played for the foreseeable future, cash concerns are mounting while plans for next season, and the remainder of the 2019-20 campaign, remain up in the air.

Clubs are naturally concerned about the drop in revenue and are having to cut their cloth accordingly.

Donald Gellatly, committee member at Recreation Park, says the club is enduring a spell of “abeyance” until the coronavirus situation starts to clear itself up.

“Members of the committee are still communicating via email regarding important club business, but not much is currently happening at Recreation Park.

“The players are not training and the social club is closed, yet there are no emergency plans in place to raise additional finance.

“There is no way of running the Super Six lottery, since the pubs that sell tickets are shut, so the only ongoing boardroom activity involves paying essential bills.

“Normally, at this time of year, the committee sits down to assess how much can be spent on wages throughout the following 12 months and that work , despite the fact we don’t know when we will return to action.”

United headed into the enforced break sitting seventh in the East of Scotland League Conference A.

They have games in hand over some of the clubs above them, which may well change to complexion of the division should it be allowed to kick off again.

Mr Gellatly said the club will be behind any proposals to resume the league season.

“The committee firmly believes the current season should be completed, whenever that may be, and we look forward to rescheduling the planned centenary events, such as the golf day, plus the marquee evening on the pitch, as soon as it is safe to do so,” he said.

“Any announcements regarding these events, player transfers or future fundraising initiatives will be communicated to our loyal supporters in the usual way, via the internet and local news outlets.”