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Police called to St Mary's Park in Kirkcudbright after complaints that Saints players were flouting lockdown rules

Police were called to St Cuthbert Wanderers’ ground on Tuesday night after a complaint that the team was training against lockdown rules.

Now the club has hit back and manager Jordan Williamson reckons it was just someone stirring up trouble.

He said: “Even the policeman who turned up was embarrassed when he saw that it was just a few of us carrying out maintenance work by cutting grass and painting fencing plus the shed.

“There were a couple of people on the pitch kicking a ball about and doing their daily exercise. That’s all it was.

“The complaint was really just the small town mentality that you get. It’s pathetic really.

“The members of the club who were there are all local, so they have not travelled over the distance limit and they were all socially distanced.

“It really is something out of nothing, so we have put out a statement online to stop it going crazy on Twitter with more stupid folk.

“The policeman then advised it might be best to get up the road and we put the brushes away.”

Jordan added: “The grass around the edge of the pitch was pretty long and was actually up to your knees.

“We were just there for a couple of hours on Tuesday night to do some maintenance and I have seen online that other clubs have been doing it too.

“We want to be prepared for when we get a date for the start of the season rather than be behind.”

The manager was joined by four committee members to carry out maintenance work.

One of those included chairman Tracey McGarrie who said: “We put out a statement to the fact that we had the police come and attend the facility.

“It wasn’t a training session, it was individuals doing daily exercising. They had a complaint and were following it up.

“There were four committee members and the manager. I was painting and everyone was socially distancing.

“When the police attended there were two young lads who had appeared and they were asked to leave.”

The Saints’ statement said: “The club would like to put on record the following statement following on from rumours circulating after tonight’s (Tuesday) events.

“At Saints we’re fully behind the efforts of all frontline staff and the Government during this pandemic. We have been following guidance from the Scottish FA and SPFL and await tomorrow’s statement regarding the return to training.

“Therefore the current rumour circulating that a training session has taken place tonight is false information.

“We can confirm that staff were in attendance at St Mary’s Park to undertake maintenance of the facilities and grounds including grass cutting, fence painting and weeding.

“Some individuals were on the pitch taking their daily exercise as per current Scottish Governmental guidelines and following social distancing protocols.

“At no time during their exercise did any club member interact with the individuals on the pitch, or organise any training exercises.”

A police spokeswoman said: “We received a report of youths on a football pitch in Castleydykes Road in Kirkcudbright at 8.40pm on Tuesday, June 9. Officers attended and provided advice and the youths dispersed.”

Source: www.msn.com
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