Huntly boss Allan Hale hopes they will still get their crack at Scottish Cup glory this season.
Prior to football below the Championship in Scotland being shutdown last month the Black and Golds progressed to the second round of the competition.
They are due to face League One outfit Dumbarton at The Rock Stadium, with a home tie against Aberdeen in round three the reward for the winner.
However, with the current suspension of lower league football continuing until at least February 14 there has yet to be any indication as to how the Scottish Cup may be completed.
Christie Park manager Hale said: “We all hope that game can be played and we get the chance to face Dumbarton.
“It’s a national competition and they finished last season’s not so long ago.
“I’d hope and expect that the Scottish Cup will go ahead and they won’t cancel it.
“We don’t know at the moment and it will depend on how things are across the country with Covid-19.
“But I’d hope we’ll get the Dumbarton game played, the players have worked very hard to get to this point coming through two difficult ties and it would be disappointing if it was taken away from them.”
The Scottish Cup run Huntly have enjoyed with victories over Lowland League sides Dalbeattie Star (3-0) and Cumbernauld Colts (3-1) have been the highlights of Huntly’s season to date.
In the Highland League they’ve drawn two and lost one, but Hale was pleased with their start to the campaign prior to last month’s suspension.
He added: “We’ve come through two difficult ties and they were ties I don’t think many people expected us to get through.
“But we’ve come through them really well scoring six goals and only conceding one.
“The players have put in two strong performances which has given us the opportunity to play a League One side in Dumbarton.
“Financially it’s helped the club massively with the income generated so I think the cup has been a real positive for us.
“But even in the league the form has been quite consistent, we were unbeaten in four in all competitions before the shutdown.
“It’s just about trying to turn those draws into wins, which is something we need to do.
“But four games unbeaten is pretty good going and it’s just unfortunate things came to a halt when they did because we felt we were building up a bit of momentum.”
Hale took over as Huntly manager in June and he feels the Black and Golds have made progress, despite the tricky conditions they have had to operate in.
He said: “I think we have made progress. It was difficult coming in because we’d lost a couple of players and had to recruit with basically no budget at all.
“That’s been the same for every club, not just Huntly. But no club was going to spend money when you don’t know when income might start coming in again.
“We’ve had to recruit with young boys coming in on loan to try to have a competitive team and have more options available to us.
“We feel we’ve managed to do that well under the circumstances and I think we’ve seen great strides of improvement from the players.
“They keep working hard and there’s a very good energy and spirit in the club and there’s a real positive outlook.”
