Context is everything with the WOSFL’s inaugural season and never more so than when there’s a great unknown to the current state of affairs.

Asking Scott Walker, Rob Roy captain and one of the most seasoned campaigners at this level of the game, to describe what the SFA-imposed suspension of all football below Championship level felt like to him and his team-mates brings him to frankly admit “a bit like being up a creek without a paddle.”

The defensive lynchpin remains confident a way can be found for football to eventually return in the lower leagues but does not believe training and games will resume at the end of January, the initially proposed watershed date.

Instead, Scott contends the end of February is looking far more realistic for a restart to hostilities however he accepts matters will be something altogether different if Rob Petrie sides with strict Scottish Government protocols and only gives the thumbs up to clubs carrying out weekly coronavirus tests.

The 31-year-old admitted: “This has definitely been a season like no other… and few if any people in the game can hand on heart say they have an inkling of what’s coming next.

“I’m one of them because my 10 years at Rob Roy have not prepared me in the slightest for the twists and turns to have beset clubs, supporters and players since preparations got underway for the big kick-off last October.

“Covid restrictions forcing the situation whereby fans were not permitted to watch games was followed by a number of big name clubs headed up by Auchinleck Talbot and Pollok deciding to withdraw from the new WOSFL set-up before a ball was kicked in anger.

“And the waters were muddied further by other clubs being allowed to pull out as late as mid-November despite having played league games.

He added: “We also had Rob Roy allotted Christmas and New Year fixtures, something that has never happened in all my time here, but as it turned out, waterlogged pitches saw to it that both our games were postponed and our enforced break was then extended as ice and snow wiped out the entire fixture list for another couple of weeks.

“Like everyone else, I was champing at the bit and desperate to get back to a bit of normality with last Saturday’s home game against Bonnyton Thistle only for a suspension of part time football to be applied

”It’s so frustrating to have spent five weeks doing nothing other than kicking our heels but what’s more concerning is I don’t see any end in sight.”

Training sessions are similarly discontinued for the skipper and his Rabs team-mates however gaffer Stewart Maxwell has mitigated the effects on fitness by preparing laid down routines to keep his charges ticking over.

Walker insisted: “I wouldn’t envisage any problems in terms of overall fitness were the opportunity to arise of us playing again if we all adhere to the work out schedules  but match sharpness is a different matter entirely and it would probably take us 2/3 weeks at the very least to get back up to speed.

“It might mean fixtures have to be delayed until the start of March but I fancy most clubs would take that right now rather than the current uncertainty hanging over the WOSFL campaign. 

“The one upside to this extra time-off period is that Ian Gold and Alex Cassells will be back in harness and able to make playing returns along with the rest of us which is a massive boost to a team like ours containing so many  new faces.

“We always knew it was going to take time for us to gel as a team but it’s every bit as important to be training together and playing games which we simply cannot do as things stand.

“And unfortunately that’s the bit out of our control and it would appear the WOSFL itself.”