91Èȱ¬

In 2016, Nairn County of the Highland League held a crisis meeting. The club were in serious trouble.

Narden, a real estate company which had effectively been bank-rolling the club for the best part of 20 years, decided to end its sponsorship deal.

Key members had left the board, while manager Les Fridge had resigned. The club desperately needed support.

The local community and businesses came to its rescue, helping with the running and funding of the club.

Now with great uncertainty within the community due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ian Finlayson, secretary of the club, says it is time to give back.

"It was amazing - the community saved us. There's absolutely no doubt about that," he recalls.

"So we're in the position now where we can do a little bit, we can't do much.

"What we can do is we can look to our suppliers who we go to each season for things like tape or laundry, stuff like that, which we'd be using each season and say how about we pay now for the first two months or first four games of the season so they've got that money immediately - it might just make the difference to them for the next month or them.

"It's no extra cost for us because it's a cost that we would have six months down the line, but if we can help the businesses that have helped us let's do that, why wouldn't we do that?"

Finlayson says the club and staff are also committed to helping the community on a more individual level, too.

"It's the new Nairn County training regime, carrying shopping around Nairn," he says.

"We thought if we can't play football and can't train, we're going to be doing nothing on Saturdays anyway.

"There are people in isolation and might be for up to 12 weeks so if you need a bit of shopping done, your medication picked up from the chemist, if you need the dog walked then give us a shout.

"You can call us or message the social media accounts and we'll sort something out."