Thursday 24 July 2014

McGlynn's midweek musings

As the pre-season campaign draws to a close, with the first competitive action taking place this Saturday in Dumfries, the official site caught up with Livi boss John McGlynn to get the latest on how things are going down at the Energy Assets Arena. Among the topics of conversation were the recent friendly matches, the upcoming fixtures, the importance of a good pre-season and an update on the injury situation within the first team squad.

We started by looking back over the friendly matches played in the last few weeks and John was very positive about what he’s seen from his players. He said: “I’m very pleased with how it’s gone, we’ve got eight new players and we needed to identify what their strengths are and come together as a team. That’s what we’ve been working on, trying to build that understanding and make it a wee bit better to get to a stage where we’re as well prepared as we can be going into the first competitive game, which happens to be a Challenge Cup tie at Queen of the South.”

John also spoke of his satisfaction at the fitness of his squad, saying “I am fairly pleased with the fitness levels we’ve got. I’ll probably retest everyone very shortly just to make sure we’ve got good results which I would anticipate us getting.”

Much was made of John’s decision not to make any substitutions during last week’s 3-0 victory at Arbroath but, as he explained, the reasoning behind it was quite simple.

He said: “Players are going to have to play 90 minutes in games this season and we need to know that they are capable of that, there was a team played the full 90 minutes against Lothian Thistle the night after (the Arbroath match). The players went through a period of playing 45 minutes here, 45 minutes there so we tried to build it up against Dunfermline and Falkirk, playing 65-70 minutes so we had to step it up again and get everyone playing 90 minutes to get used to a 90 minute game when the competitive stuff starts.”

Attention then turned to the upcoming match against Queen of the South in the Petrofac Training Cup on Saturday and John discussed the injury and suspension situation within the first-team squad.

He said: “Jason Talbot is suspended after his red card against Berwick last season. He’s picked up a knee injury anyway, we’re not sure how bad it is as yet but we’re hopeful of having him back for opening league game against Hibs. Simon Mensing is coming along nicely, he’s on schedule – we feared he was going to need an operation but he didn’t. I don’t want to say how long it will be as I don’t want to dig myself a hole by setting a timescale which he might not meet. Kevin Walker had a knee injury at the end of last season which has flared up so he won’t make it.”

John also discussed the current progress of Keaghan Jacobs on his comeback from a broken leg sustained in last season’s closing win over Raith Rovers.

“Keaghan is coming along, he will get 30 minutes tomorrow (against Dalkeith Thistle), 45 minutes on Sunday (against Heriot-Watt University) and then hopefully an hour next Wednesday (against Musselburgh Athletic.”

Results aren’t the be all and end all in pre-season matches but John spoke of the importance they can have, saying: “The results won’t matter if we win all the friendlies then lose the first competitive game but it breeds confidence and a winning mentality is not a bad thing to get into. We’ve had three clean sheets in a row too which is something we definitely felt we needed more of.”

With the first competitive fixture in Dumfries sandwiched between three friendly matches, John discussed the make-up of the teams for the upcoming fixtures.

He said: “Tomorrow night there’ll be no one who’s got a chance of playing on Saturday, I’ll be taking no risks whatsoever and it’ll be a very young side. On Sunday we’ll probably play some of the players who didn’t play against Queen of the South. We’ll then assess things for Wednesday and see who needs a run out.”

Even with the competitive action getting underway on Saturday, John spoke of the importance those subsequent friendlies will hopefully carry, saying: “The games are good preparation because hopefully if we win these cup ties we’ll have more midweek games in the future so it will get us used to that.”