Royal Albert vs Eglinton
Original match on 27/07 postponed due to Royal Albert not being ready. The club shared this statment on their Facebook page:
The club shared this statement on their Facebook page:
"We tonight have some good & bad news to share with everyone. After months of hard work behind the scenes and working tirelessly with South Lanarkshire Council to take over the tileworks facility in a full time capacity and for the tileworks to be owned and run by the Royal Albert FC we are tonight delighted to announce as of next Friday it will now be in the hands of ourselves.
"The tileworks has been a massive part of day-to-day life in Stonehouse for generations and we are very thankful for the council to put their trust in us to now keep the facility open and hopefully back thriving in no time.
"We will be opening back up the 5-a-sides in due course to the public.
"Prices for bookings etc will be up soon anyone looking to book it please get in contact with a member of the committee John Reilly, Scott Roe or our first team manager Connor. We have already received groups pre-booking set times already which is great to see.
"As the same with everything running the facility will take a lot of time, effort and money so we urge any one at all involved previously or currently with the Albert to come ahead and offer support or anyone from the public who’s looking to get involved. Please contact us, any support at all is greatly appreciated.
"We would also kindly ask any local companies who can help in any way possible whether it’s landscapers, tradesmen, anything at all, men or female who are looking to back us as we look to keep this great facility open for the Stonehouse public and wider public to please come ahead and reach out it could really be the difference in helping make the Stonehouse thrive again day to day in the village."
The club added: "Unfortunately this Saturday's league opener against Eglinton has had to be postponed due to paperwork not being signed off yet and the last remaining drainage works not being finished. We have been assured that everything will be held over signed and sorted for our next home fixture which will be against local side Newmains - a week on Saturday.
"Unfortunate not to be able to get the first game of the season played on Saturday as the boys have had a very good pre-season but we hope it’s all worthwhile in the long run. Thank you to everyone who has already came forward with support in this process of taking full control of the tileworks and we would like to stress one last time anyone at all looking to come on board and help in ANY capacity to come forward, please.
"Taking full control of this facility doesn’t only assure the first team have a secure place to play their football. We currently have 90 children spread over 6 teams from ages 6-14 who will continue to play for their local team out of their own facility in their own village for years to come.
"We are also glad to announce that that will be hot food and refreshments available from the ground on match days."