Darren Henderson has heaped praise on his depleted squad – and has asked West of Scotland League chiefs to help out struggling clubs.
The Hurlford boss watched his side battle into the Kilmarnock Pie West of Scotland Cup quarter-final with a 2-1 win away to St Rochs – but with just 10 fit players he was more worried about getting the game on.
With a number of long-term injuries leaving the Blair Park side short on numbers, due to no trialists being allowed in cup games, Henderson was forced to play an injured Mikey Wilson – before replacing him with 40-year-old assistant manager John Dempster.
Henderson knows that the rules are set in stone but he’s asking league supremos to consider helping clubs that have been depleted due to Covid and injuries.
Hendo said: “It’s really bad, the rules are set out at the beginning of the season and you need to abide by them, I understand that.
“You aren’t allowed to sign a player after March 31, but in the league you can play a few trialists which is great.
“That would give me the chance to maybe look at some youngsters, or an amateur player, it gives them opportunities.
“But in cup games you can’t play trialists, and due to the rules you can’t sign anyone at all.
“I only have 15 players, and I have five long-term injuries – that leaves me with 10.
“I was told if I have seven players I need to start the game, but you are actually robbing the public in that case.
“You are taking money off people knowing it wouldn’t be much of a game, it’s no good for anyone.
“You can offer to give the tie away, forfeit it. We discussed that, but the league chiefs told us if we do that then they’ll fine us and they’ll ban us from the cup next year.
“What are we dealing with? I get the rules that you can’t sign players as it stops teams signing players from bigger clubs at the tail end of the season.
“But all I wanted to do was sign an amateur player, or a youth player, just to get 11 players on the park.
“I just feel like there should be some sort of system that you can apply for help in emergency situations like this.
“On Saturday I had 10 players, I had to play an injured Mikey Wilson who we had to strap up and fill up with painkillers, he had to come off after half-time.
“But I was playing a player who could have ended up being set back with his injury.
“I had to bring on John Dempster, who is 40 and hasn’t played football in a long, long time. Not even trained.
“He was on the bench with my goalkeeper coach Ally Brown who hasn’t played in years, and Paul McKenzie’s name was on the bench but he wasn’t even stripped because he had no chance of playing.
“John did really well on Saturday, he hasn’t played in years, but believe it or not he actually changed the game for us.
“I wouldn’t like to have to do it again, it’s just another headache for me.”
Henderson admits he’ll be facing the same situation against Conference A winners Arthurlie – a team who finished their league campaign unbeaten.
He said: “At least in the league on Saturday I can pull in trialists, but against Arthurlie, trialists can’t play so it’ll be the same situation.”
“I say to them ‘look can we get a wee bit of help? Can I sign a couple of young players?’ They are denying these young lads an opportunity, the galling thing is that they are quite happy for you to turn up with seven men.
“Then I asked what if we didn’t have seven? They said we’d need doctors’ lines, it takes you days to get through to doctors let alone get appointments.
“I am disappointed with the league chiefs, I know it’s no one else’s fault but our own for the squad numbers, but some of the injuries have came about because of Covid, boys have missed a lot of training and we needed to rush them back.
“It’s not just us, a lot of clubs are facing these issues, it needs looked at.”
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