Bellshill Athletic: Donation of clubhouse package by Bridlington Town is “game changer"

Bridlington – whose Queensgate ground in Yorkshire is being upgraded – decided to give their existing clubhouse package including bar area, board room, laundry room, toilets and stock room, to Bellshill after reading online about the fire on Easter Sunday which wrecked large swathes of the Rockburn Park premises.

“This is a fantastic gesture from Bridlington,” Bellshill stalwart Brian told the Times and Speaker.

“It’s a game changer for us.

“This is going to sound awful, but this fire is maybe going to be the best thing that’s going to happen to us.

“Without the fire we wouldn’t have this building coming up.

“What’s coming up from Bridlington is basically eight of what we have.

“At the moment we have one portacabin but now we’re going to have seven of those plus the toilet blocks.

“Its 242 square metres in size, the whole building.

“For us with the academy taking off – that’s us up to seven teams in the academy going forward for the start of this year – it’s given us a proper base for that now.

“We used to have a very small bar and the bar we’re getting is much bigger and better.

“It’s basically a mini function suite we’re getting with a board room, proper selling area for the bar and an office for a bar steward.

“Before all we had was one small room with a kitchen area. It’s like night and day.”

The exact date of when the Bridlington facilities will be brought north within an eight-lorry convoy is unconfirmed, although it will be able to happen any time after the English outfit’s utility services are disconnected on May 20.

Brian added: “After that Bridlington will be getting the rooms down, getting them dismantled, getting them wrapped for transport, on the back of the loaders and up they come.

“May the 20th is a Sunday, so I think we’d likely get the stuff delivered to Bellshill in the week after that.

Bellshill have also run a GoFundMe campaign, the proceeds from which will mostly cover an upgrade of the existing changing room facilities at Rockburn Park and part of the transport costs from England.

The new facilities being imminently delivered to Bellshill come at an exciting time for the club, who recently quit the junior ranks to join the West of Scotland Football League pyramid at tier seven.

Bellshill are in Conference A with Arthurlie, Craigmark, Forth, Girvan, Glasgow Uni, Irvine, Johnstone, Lesmahagow, Lugar, Maryhill, Maybole, Muirkirk, Saltcoats, Shotts and Whitletts.