GREENOCK Juniors boss Tommy Molloy fears that his side may have already kicked their last ball this season after the SFA postponed all matches below the Championship until the end of the month.

The decision made on Monday afternoon in the wake of rising coronavirus infections across the country saw the West of Scotland League shelved until January 31, with the football authorities saying the temporary halt will be reviewed on a ‘rolling basis'.

While the 'Nock gaffer agrees with the call, he believes that it may not be possible to play out the remainder of the season in such a short space of time without risking the health of both players and committee members.

He told the Tele: “I thought they would come to this decision but if I'm being honest, my only worry is if we’re actually going to be able to start up again.

“I don’t know whether the timing of the decision was great, because when it was announced on the Monday, we’d already had an email from the league at the weekend confirming the next couple of fixtures.

“It seemed to be a reaction but now we’re looking at if it's possible to get back and personally I don’t think we’ll be able to.

Morton's Scottish Cup clash postponed as SFA announce three-week suspension

“We’ve got 16 league games and at least one cup game to get through if we get back mid-February, it’s impossible to play that many games in such a short space of time.

“All it takes is a bad month of weather like we’ve had over the last few years and it totally wipes out the rest of the league.

“January obviously isn’t happening anymore in terms of fixtures and we aren’t even allowed to train.

“You can't turn around and tell us straight away to go right back into a game in February without any training.

“Our last game was the weekend before Christmas, so if we’re out of action until the middle of February, that’s seven weeks without a game - the equivalent of a full pre-season.

“Is that going to put players off? I don’t know, but I know I certainly wouldn’t be happy with it being all stop-start and not knowing if we would be able to play out a season.

“Personally, I thought if we’d have gotten through January then we could’ve seen the season through and I don’t think that’s possible now, but I 100 per cent agree with the decision.

“As I’ve said before, the timing of it could’ve been better but that’s just the nature of the beast and the times that we’re living in just now.

“We’ve probably got the smallest committee at our level and with no disrespect to them, they’re not getting any younger, the last thing I want is them turning up on a Saturday, travelling to away games and worrying about their own health.

“Same goes to the players as well because they’re all doing it for the good of the club.”

Molloy admits he wasn't surprised that the football authorises came to the decision to suspend fixtures below the top two tiers following a rise in Covid-19 cases across the country.

The Ravenscraig boss says he is concerned about the the knock-on effect stopping football will have on players' mental health during these difficult times.

He added: “I think the SFA or the JRG [Join Response Group] have been forced into making a decision about football with everything that’s gone on recently.

“Could you say we were the easy option?

“I’m not saying that we were, but something was eventually going to give with the situation and cases rising again.

“I worry for players’ mental health in times like this as well because they just want nothing more than to play and have a bit of a release.

“They’ve given us everything through the first eight or nine weeks of the season and we’ve gone through all the protocols as best as we could.

“I do feel for them but ultimately if stopping our league until the end of the season and we start again fresh and it made a wider impact in restoring a bit of normality, I’d bite your hand off.”