Brian Welsh continues his online diary from the Under 19 squad's visit to Portigal.

We are now into week 2 of a very successful and enjoyable trip to the Algarve.

This has been a great experience for the young players at the club. We have managed to spend over 20 hours on the training field as a group in our first week. Initially both weights and fitness runs were established to give us a baseline. These have been taken again at the start of this week which has proved that the levels of fitness have risen in line with our expectations. The ability to spend time together through the funding of the European Union and the Leonardo di Vinci project has benefited us as a squad and a club, experiencing both top quality training areas and also the nutritional support provided by accommodators - Browns.

We have managed to include ball-work, awareness and possession training as well as general drills but have been able to top this up with daily individual and group gym sessions, spinning sessions and the inclusion of fitness work on the Beach Football arena.

Due to an intense training schedule the squad have been made aware of the need for rest periods and the importance of this for athletes. The rest periods after training but before meal times have been utilised well.

Part of the criteria of the trip has been to introduce some cultural awareness of the area we are staying in and we have enjoyed so far a visit to both a traditional and a modern Cork factory for which this area of the Algarve is especially known. We have also visited Cape St Vincent, the most Westerly point of mainland Europe from where you can see both the Atlantic Ocean and the start of the Straits of Gibraltar.

From an injury point of view, we arrived with 4 long term injuries and with the facilities available and the provision of experienced physiotherapy cover, all squad members have been able to train to their full potential. We therefore had 18 players fully fit and able to play in Tuesday's game with Portimonense, which ended in a 2-2 draw. More on that later.

We are extremely happy with the progress that the players are making and believe, with the level of talent in the squad, the future looks bright for Livingston FC.

We would also like to thank Football Nation for their kind gesture in supplying us with training tops for our visit (see pic below)

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