Bonnyrigg Rose will not get drawn into Lowland League 'speculation' after Brora Rangers crowned Highland League champions

Bonnyrigg Rose say they will leave speculation as to what happens to the Lowland League “up to others” following the Highland League’s decision to award its championship to Brora Rangers early due to the coronavirus crisis.

Rose are currently in a Lowland League title race with Kelty Hearts. The Fifers lead the Midlothian club by six points, but Rose have a game in hand and were due to host Kelty this Saturday before the rising numbers of Covid-19 cases across the globe forced the suspension of Scottish football.

The Highland League’s move to crown Brora as champions has implications on the Lowland League, as the title winners face off in a play-off to play the club that finishes at the foot of League 2 (currently Brechin City). East Stirlinghshire are nine points adrift of Rose in third place having played a game more, while fourth-placed BSC Glasgow are a further two points behind, albeit with two games in hand on Robbie Horn’s men.

As yet, no decision has been made on the current season across all divisions in Scotland with the exception of the Highland League, and in a statement on the club’s website, Bonnyrigg outlined that they will remain tight-lipped on what should happen.

The communication read: “The Scottish FA announced on Thursday, March 19th to extend the period of suspension of all football activity until April 30th. This is something we are completely behind and fully expect a further extension in the near future is light of current circumstances.

“There has been lots of speculation as to what that means for clubs at all levels but that's all it remains at present. We will continue to wait for official guidance from the Joint Response Group, who are awaiting further information from the UEFA Working Group on the next steps for club and international fixtures as per the announcement on March 17th.

“We would like to congratulate Highland League champions Brora Rangers who were awarded the league title over the weekend after a meeting of HL clubs. They must be a very strong side if our encounters with Fraserburgh and Buckie Thistle this season in the Scottish cup are anything to go by.

“Our next Lowland League meeting is in two weeks time and we will give an update if there is any information of note that we able to share. All we can do at the present time is to control the controllable and leave the speculation to others.”

Bonnyrigg also revealed that a number of its players and management team have offered to go without pay until football resumes and that it has set up a donations scheme after supporters got in touch wishing to assist the club during these tough times.

“We have been overwhelmed with the volume of messages received via our social media platforms, email & text message from supporters on how they can help given the current circumstances and suggestions as to how they could do that,” the statement continued.

“We have also been humbled having been approached by a number of our playing squad and management team who have offered to forego wages until normal football activities resume. All of our squad and management team were paid as normal for March earlier in the month.

“We operate the club on the basis of spending what we can, rather than spending what we can't, as we don't rely on council support nor do we on individual financial backers.

“The club have decided that to accept donations based on the messages received from supporters; for example we have had supporters suggest that they would be willing to pay what they would normally pay at a game, given we have a minimum of five home games left to play in the season.

“Donations such as these or larger donations can be made on our website (which start at £1 which is the equivalent of a HT draw ticket), our bank a/c or via Paypal, details of which are https://www.bonnyriggrosefc.co.uk/payments/support-the-club-49021.html.”

Bank transfers can be made using the sort code 80-06-29 and account number 06007443 with the reference “donation”, while the club is also accepting money via PayPal.