CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT FOLLOWING HAMILTON CUP MATCH

On behalf of our Board, can I thank the hardy souls who attended both cup ties in recent days, and in particular the Pars fans who travelled through to Hamilton on Tuesday for our cup replay.

You all gave the players fantastic support for the whole match. “The Accies” are an established Premiership side who we more than matched for 210 minutes, over the two matches.

I am not going to hide from the fact that like everyone else (supporters, players and backroom staff) we were left gutted by the fact that we are out of the Scottish Cup for another year, particularly under the circumstances of losing a contentious penalty so late in the game, with such a lucrative tie awaiting the winners in the next round, which would have boosted our capital reserves. Our players did not deserve that either after putting in such a hard shift.

We certainly have not had too many breaks this season, however, we all need to overcome the disappointment and remain focused on the bigger job over the next few years, which is getting our club back to where it should be – playing Premiership clubs regularly. In adversity you sometimes learn more about the things that need to improve, but I would encourage our fans to concentrate on the very many positives from the last few days, rather than what might have been as it can become destructive.

We need to move on quickly, as there is still much to play for between now and the end of the season, and by sticking together we can help our club achieve a good first season back in the Championship. As already stated, we have very few home fixtures in the next six weeks until they all seem to come at once in April, so it is a challenging time for us with so much riding on the last full month of the season.

As ever, we value and greatly appreciate your ongoing support. It is not always easy being a Pars fan, particularly in recent years, but we are very resilient people, so let’s move on from the bitter disappointment of last night.

I would like to wish our friends at Hamilton Academical the best of luck in the next round.

COYP!!

Ross McArthur
Chairman