Dee ready to play in Highland League
Welsh’s claim after Fort William mauling
Published:
BANKS o’ Dee manager Garry Welsh believes their 10-goal mauling of Fort William in the Scottish Cup proved his players are ready to compete in the Highland League.
The Spain Park boss insists that if and when a decision is made regarding any application to join the Highland League, then it will be the club’s committee who will have the final say.
However, he has warned that Dee may lose their best players to Highland League clubs in the near future if they don’t decide to leave the Junior ranks.
Welsh said: “From someone who has been in the Highland League, I would think hard about doing it again, purely in terms of the travel involved.
“But from the club’s point of view, if you were to write down all the plusses and minuses then it could only improve the club.
“And if Turriff and Formartine are successful with their applications, then it would be a great time to do it.
“I really couldn’t think of a better time for the club to be doing it.
“The players could certainly handle it.
“We would need a bigger squad, but we have players here like Robbie Turnbull, Richard Scaiffe, Gordon Carstairs and Myles Brownhill who will be playing in the Highland League within the next year or so regardless of whether Banks o’ Dee are there or not.
“The issue is whether the club wants to commit to the bigger picture of it.
“That’s the million-dollar question and at the end of the day that decision is none of my business.
“I think that if we were to apply, then it would be looked upon favourably, although I’m not party to what happens behind the scenes.
“Some of them might wake up this morning thinking that the time is ready for the club to do this, while others will be thinking that they should never do it.
“But it’s something that needs to be looked at very, very closely.”
Welsh insists that Saturday’s result and the Scottish Cup run in general will have no effect on the team’s domestic form as they bid to qualify for next season’s competition by retaining their Superleague crown.
He said: “I don’t think it will be a problem for the players we have here.
“We have several very important games between now and the time we face Inverurie Locos in the second round at the end of October, so there is definitely enough there to keep the guys interested.
“I don’t think the players will look at the Locos game any differently to the way they have prepared for an Aberdeenshire League or Aberdeenshire Cup game.
“They are a fairly level headed bunch and both my assistant Ian Taylor and myself will be there to make sure they keep their feet on the ground.”
Meanwhile, Welsh has hit back at suggestions from Dyce boss Andy Milne that the club were not given permission to talk to striker Kevin Neish.
He said: “I really don’t know where Andy Milne is coming from.
“Why on earth would we arrange to meet the player for talks when we knew the press would be there if we didn’t have permission to talk to the player?
“The player himself is very frustrated as he was hoping to be involved in the Fort William game, and I don’t know how we can move things on from here.”
Despite the claims of the Dee boss, Dyce secretary Keith McIntosh is adamant they still have yet to receive the go-ahead to talk to the striker.
He said: “Banks o’ Dee do not have permission to speak to Kevin.”
