CAPITAL START SHOWS WE’RE HANDLING IT
DANNY HANDLING’S had a team talk delivered by Jason Cummings, been part of a squad popping balloons to burst negative thoughts and been asked to explain inspiration drawn from Martin Luther King.
Experiences that wouldn’t look out of place in Arsenal’s Amazon Prime doc may not inform how Handling approaches matchday in an historic campaign for Edinburgh.
But the fact gaffer Alan Maybury has brought in bodies who have had a fair share of their own in storied careers is having the desired impact.
Edinburgh – who have brought in James Craigen following his Arbroath exit – head to leaders Airdrie today having won three of their first five games.
Injuries decimated the squad for a chunk of their promotion-winning season as Handling said: “There were times last season we were out on our feet.
“Part-time teams almost get forgotten about. It’s the same boys who have to travel on a Tuesday or Wednesday night after work, it’s the same boys going to play on a Saturday, so it does take its toll.
“That is why the gaffer has such a big squad this year because he didn’t want that to happen again. He’s signed clever, he’s signed better players.
“No disrespect to previous managers but they signed players who have come from the same level or the level below.
“Whereas the gaffer has signed from leagues above, which will benefit us in the long term as well because we have players who have played at a decent level and know what it takes.
“That is why we’ve got off to a good start. It’s only a start but hopefully it will stand us in good stead. We have quite a big squad.”
For a club that at one point last season saw the oldest on the pitch just 23, it’s invaluable experience and perhaps a more textbook way of learning than Handling has had at times.
The ex-Hibs player laughed and said: “Terry Butcher made us do a few crazy things. I was one of the younger boys coming through, like Jason.
“Young boys in a firstteam dressing room get nervous at the best of times so one of the things he did was make Jase take the team talk before a game.
“I think it was before Hearts, he made Jase stand up and tell boys what to do, what to think. Jase was more nervous for the team talk than the game!
“It was nerve-racking, we were going into a dressing room full of senior boys thinking, ‘We’re going to end up having to do something’. They were all big games but he was trying to get us to do things.
“He got a big room full of balloons, got us all to hold a balloon each, put all our negative thoughts in the balloon then pop it.
“The last one was he got a big white board and one by one we had to go up and write somebody famous from history that inspired us and explain the decision.”
Airdrie are unbeaten at home and stand-out Adam Frizzell reckons new player-boss Rhys McCabe has wasted no time in making this team his own.
Frizzell said: “He has definitely put an identity on the way he wants to play on and off the ball.
“We are still getting to grips with that because there are players coming in and he has changed the way we play, to an extent.
“We’re not the biggest team so we need to play to our strengths but it has been working so far. We look to dominate the ball and I don’t think Saturday will be any different.”