GREENOCK Juniors gaffer Tommy Molloy fears the inaugural season of the new West of Scotland League may have to be called off or scaled back.

Molloy has called for urgent clarity from officials after the start date of his side’s competitive comeback was unexpectedly pushed back to the end of October.

His side were supposed to come out of a six-month hiatus on October 17 but this has now been delayed.

The Nock chief says he is struggling to see how teams will manage to fit in a full campaign.

He told the Tele: “I think our league is in a precarious position with the delayed start.

"It's 30 games but I don’t know how you can fit all these fixtures and cup games into a delayed start now we’ve been pushed back to the end of October.

“This is meant with no disrespect to other teams, but I’ve been down to places in Ayrshire who are in our league and with their pitches they’ll not get games on for two month periods.

“If we are not going to be able to start on Halloween then we will just need to forget it until next year - it’s now or never.

“Even when I say next year, when would we be able to start and when would the league finish?

“You’ve got the late winter early spring weather to take into account of the last few years.

"Players say that they’ll happily play through the summer, but people will still want to go away on their holidays."

Molloy admits he is baffled by the delay to the eagerly-awaited kick-off.

He said: “The Lowland League have been given their full card of fixtures and are ready to go.

"I don’t see how we’re any different from them.

“We’re just looking for some clarity from the relevant bodies as to what we can do because we’ve had to rip up any planning that we’ve done over the last six to eight weeks and start again.

“It’s most likely that we’ll have to reduce training to once a week for the next couple of weeks because we’ve pretty much done a full pre-season already.

“We’ve already had 10 sessions and played two friendlies - it’s so frustrating.”

On a happier note, the manager is delighted at bringing in experienced former Largs Thistle and Hurlford United stalwart James Marks to return to the club and bolster his attacking ranks.

He revealed that he managed to fend off competition from teams in higher divisions to secure the striker's signature.

But Molloy is now worried he may never get to see Marks play at Ravenscraig if there isn’t some sort of clarity soon on the start of the campaign.

He told the Telegraph: “It’s been great to get James in.

“You wouldn’t think he was 36 with the way that he plays.

“He’s come in and his attitude has been spot on, it’s been a joy to have him in.

“He was training with us for a few weeks before he signed and I know a few clubs further up the chain were after him.

“I think Greenock’s the right club at the right time for him, it’s on his doorstep and he can come in and have players looking up to him.

“James is not here to see out his career by any means - he’s in to score goals and do well for us in the league.

"It's quite sentimental that he’s came back to where his career began - I just hope that he actually gets to kick a ball for us this year.”