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Although disappointed that last Friday night’s league game at Glasgow University was postponed due to snow lying at Airdrie’s Penny Cars Stadium, Lesmahagow Juniors boss Neil Schoneville revealed that his squad had faced the prospect of being decimated by coronavirus.

“We were looking forward to the game,” Schoneville said. “We had had a bit of a nightmare on the Tuesday and then a few people in for Covid tests and isolating until they got their results so we were down to the bare bones.

"But then by Friday we were up to 16 players so it was a bit of a gutter that it was off."

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Other than suspended pair Darren Lygate and James Coffey, Schoneville has a full squad to pick from for this Saturday’s home West of Scotland League Conference A clash against Lugar Boswell Thistle, with kick-off at 1.30pm.

Thirteenth placed ’Gow – who have 22 points from 21 games – are 12 points ahead of 14th placed Thistle with one fixture in hand.

Schoneville said: “We are looking to get three points but we’re not taking it lightly.

"We’ll be preparing like we do for every game. Hopefully we can get the three points and get into the pack just above us.

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"At the moment we’re seven points from ninth position – where we want to be – so if we win on Saturday and other teams drop points then hopefully we can start climbing the table.

"Our aim this season is to finish in the top nine. It’s going to be difficult but I believe the players are there to do it.

"We’ll be taking it one game at a time.”

With this being the first full campaign with the conferences set-up and teams of varying ability levels currently playing in the same leagues, Schoneville thinks it will take a few seasons for things to ‘level out’ thanks to promotion and relegation.

"Some teams are playing in leagues against teams they would not normally be playing against,” he added.

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"This season is hard because we are playing against teams with well superior budgets.

"But everybody is in the same boat.

"Some teams might have a great season this season and get in leagues they are not meant to be in next season.

"And then it will kind of level itself out the following season.”

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