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24th December 2024
Manager Jim Goodwin was really pleased to see the progress we've made in the seven days since since our friendly against East Fife.
Our second outing of the summer saw another closed doors friendly at our Training Centre in St Andrews, with cinch League One side Queen Of The South making the journey north to our base in Fife.
Minutes in the Tank
“Everybody played 45 minutes each last Saturday, we extended the time of some of the squad today and I will make changes again on Tuesday to make sure we get everybody on an equal amount of minutes as best as we can.
“There was a lot to learn from last week's game against East Fife. The result was good because we won, but there was plenty of things that we needed to improve on, both in the shape of the team and the defensive set up.
“I thought we saw that today and we worked hard on that during the week. The high press, the distances between all the different segments of the team and I’m delighted to see that the boys are taking on board what's been asked of them. The scoreline is irrelevant, yes we won the game 2-1, however we probably could have won it by a lot more.”
Making progress
Most of the goalmouth action came towards the Doonhamers end of the park with their 'keeper called into action as Chris Mochrie, Rory MacLeod, Kevin Holt and Glenn Midddelton all had efforts thwarted.
Indeed, Mochrie and Middleton were unlucky as both hit the bar, with young Chris hitting the woodwork twice - once from a longe range dipping shot and the other from the penalty spot.
“We've hit the woodwork a couple of times from open play, Mochrie has hit the woodwork from the penalty, the ‘keeper has made a couple of fantastic saves and we would have liked to have scored a few more goals.
“The goal we conceded was disappointing which means there is still room for us to improve on in defence, but for me the difference between today's game and last week's is the most pleasing thing.
“There's a hell of a lot more positives to take from today than there was last weekend and that progress will continue to happen in the coming weeks.”
Incredible strike from Declan Glass
Academy Graduate Declan Glass only needed 30 minutes to impress being one of a raft of changes in the 60th minute and he curled an exquisite effort from outside the box to net our second of the afternoon late on.
“It was a real bit of individual brilliance from him on the edge of the box and to put it in the top right corner on his weaker foot was a great finish, so all in all, very, very satisfying.
“Queen of the South have a good side Marvin Bartley has got them playing some good football and I think that they will be at the right end of their table competing to get back up another level.”
Working hard and hitting levels
There was an additional session directly after the 90 minutes for the eleven that finished the game. Having only played a half hour the Gaffer expressed the importance of everyone getting as much in the tank in these early weeks of pre-season.
“We had to get those who came on in the second half to distances where they needed to be on a level par with the team that played the first hour. That's why we done what we done and all the boys worked extremely hard.
“It's not easy coming from the game into that type of session, and I would imagine some of the guys that played in that half an hour will probably have higher distances than some of the team that started the game. The most important thing for us from a sports science and a strength and conditioning point of view is that every player is getting similar levels of fitness.
“When the Viaplay Cup starts we're going to be Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday with four games in the space of two weeks we can't just rely on one starting eleven. It's always about the group and we are going to be fair to everybody and make sure that they all get the the necessary fitness that they need.”
