Willie wants more
Glens boss urges side to raise standards after win
Rutherglen Glencairn boss Willie Harvey has told his players to step up their pre-season preparations – after hammering Carluke 9-3 on Saturday.
Harvey has lined up a friendly double- header with rivals Cambuslang Rangers for tonight (Wednesday) and Saturday, with games coming up against BSC and East Kilbride FC.
Seven new players made their first appearances as Glens went on a scoring spree against Mark Weir’s Rovers, with doubles from Jay McKay, Michael Lone and Scott Schoneville added to by
Kieran Coleman, Harry Mitchell and an own goal.
The Glens gaffer says it’s no disrespect to Rovers, who gave them a good game at the Hamish B Allan Stadium, but they’re looking for a tougher test – even if Harvey was angered by some of the defending.
“It was a good run- out, considering how long it had been and that there were so many new players playing together,” he said.
“It was quite encouraging, but I’m beginning to think I’m becoming a glass half-empty kind of guy, because I was really happy going forward but disappointed with the manner of the three goals we lost.
“That can be put down to new players bedding in, not knowing each other and basically the last time we played was away back in February.
“Pre- season friendlies are about getting your formation ready, your match-fitness ready, and basically getting players to know each other.
“No disrespect to Carluke, and I think the 9-3 flattered us a wee bit, because for certain parts of the game they had good possession and put us under a wee bit of pressure, but from now onwards we’ll start to up standards of the teams we’ll be playing, against teams who are in a higher division than us.
“We have two games against Cambuslang, which will be great because that’s the local derby on Wednesday night and then on Saturday up at Cambuslang, and then we’re hoping to step it up again against BSC the following Wednesday, and then up at East Kilbride FC on the Saturday.
“We’re looking to push ourselves as well, because we don’t want to be playing lower league teams, winning lots of games and thinking to ourselves that we’re great, look at the amount of goals we’re scoring, because that would just be false.
“We’ll up the standards and the quality, and hopefully we’ll up the quality of our play as well.”