Grierson quietly confident at Vics
George Grierson reckons he’s built a team of winners at Whitletts.
But the vastly-experienced gaffer insists that’s no guarantee of success in cutthroat Conference A.
Grierson, in his second spell at the Ayr outfit, accepts Whitletts will be one of the more fancied teams in the division alongside the likes of Arthurlie and Shotts.
A cursory glance at his squad would appear to back that up. New signings include vastlyexperienced Chris McGowan, promising young ful- back Zac Simpson and proven goalscorer Scott Dempster.
However, the normally ouspoken Grierson remains uncharacteristcally tightlipped when quizzed on what he believes his team can achieve this season.
“I think we can have a good season and we’ve talked privately about where we want to be,” he said.
“But I’m a lot longer in the tooth these days to go about making any bold statements.
“This is the kind of division where a lot of teams are capable of taking points off each other.
“Of course, we want to be there or thereabouts. We’ve managed to keep most of the squad together and blend in good bit of experience and youth.
“Our dressing room is littered with boys who have won leagues and you hope that rubs off on the younger players.
“There will be peaks and troughs and that’s where we will benefit from having older heads.
“I’ve been about the leagues for a number of years now and I know what I need.
“We’ve tried to make ourselves very hard to break down but I like my teams to be on the front foot and we’ve got some exciting forward players.”
Whitletts are returning to competitive action for the first time since March 2020, having taking the decision to sit out the inaugural West of Scotland League season due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Grierson has, therefore, been pleased to see his side hit their stride in pre-season with a number of promising performances.
It’s been something of a summer tour for the South Ayrshire side with their council-owned home ground out of bounds.
But a 1-1 draw against
Premier giants Kilwinning and a narrow 1-0 loss against top flight Irvine Meadow suggest they’re in good shape for the big kick-off.
Grierson said: “We’ve done well on the whole. The only blip was a 4-0 defeat against Glenafton but I can’t be too critical of the boys.
“Now we’re all really excited and looking forward to getting back to the real stuff.
“The club made the right
decision to sit out last season in my view but I take absolutely no pleasure in saying that.
“I’m excited to get a bit of normality back and hopefully we can get through this season without too many problems.”
Whitletts are showing a good deal of ambition of the park too with the club poised to move to a new ground next season.
Grierson added: “The committee deserve an enormous amount of credit.”