2 minute read
View from The Dugout
JIM MCIntyre
This afternoon sees the first competitive home fixture of what we all hope will be another successful season at Balmoral Stadium.
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It has been a bit of a whirlwind since I was appointed just over a month ago, and given that we’ve had only eight training sessions as a group, I have to say I’m really pleased with where we are at this stage.
The three warm-up games were all about trying to get the fitness levels up, but it’s going to be a few weeks, and a few more matches, before the players are close to where we want them to be.
We kicked-off the Premier Sports Cup campaign with a victory against Albion Rovers, despite not being at our best. I thought we started the game well enough, but got into a bad habit of giving the ball away too often, and trying to play it too long.
They gave us a few scares late on, but we got the points, and the really pleasing aspect for me was that we scored two brilliant goals. What we didn’t do was manage the game as we should have done in the last twenty minutes, we had to defend for our lives on occasion, but we carved out the result, and in cup competitions that’s all that matters.
We now have back-to-back home games which gives us the chance to get a real foothold in this group.
The first of those is sure to be a tough one against a side which has cemented its place in the Premiership in recent seasons.
Livingston will be hurting after losing at home to Caley Thistle on Tuesday night, and I’m sure David Martindale will have them fired-up for this one. We’ll have to be better than we were at Cliftonhill, but the boys are honest enough to know that, and I expect to see a reaction from them.
I saw that Mitch Megginson was talking this week about his determination to qualify for the knock-out stages, something the club has never previously achieved, and that’s got to be the target for all of us. A win this afternoon would put us in a pretty strong position, and that’s what we’ll be looking for.
Enjoy the game!
