Brown wants win in cup dress rehearsal
Craig Brown has urged his East Kilbride side to beat Kilmarnock in a dress rehearsal of their National Shield tie in a fortnight.
But head coach Brown also wants his charges to go on a run that could take them to a “statement” second place in West League 1, ahead of next season.
Brown (pictured, right) had hoped to make a step-up this term, but Ardrossan Accies are 19 points clear of secondplaced Lenzie, who are themselves nine points ahead of East Kilbride in sixth, and admits it would take something “seismic” to change that.
But he says after losing the National Shield final last season, progress in the competition this term is important, with a first round tie looming at Kilmarnock on January 27.
Brown, whose side first foot Kilmarnock on league duty this Saturday, said: “It’s got a double interest, because we’ve got them in the National Shield coming up at the end of the month.
“We want to go down there and give a good account of ourselves.
“Everyone has had a really good rest over the holidays, and that has got rid of a lot of injuries and a lot of tiredness, I suppose, because it’s quite a commitment to play and train as much as we do.
“There were a lot of niggling injuries that people couldn’t shake, but we’ve all had a really good break off and started training back last week.
“A lot of the guys had continued to do a little bit of work over the Christmas period – not just with their right elbow – some of them actually managed to get to the gym or out for a run, so we haven’t lost too much, there.
“It will be good to see everybody back playing again, and we know the type of game we’ve got ahead for us, but we’re looking forward to it.
“The last time we played them was at home and we beat them 18-13, but we need to put more points behind teams like this.
“Kilmarnock are a big, physical team, and we’ve loved playing against those teams, but can get caught up in an ‘arm wrestling’ match with those guys.
“If you get caught up in these individual battles you can forget there’s a game still there to be won.
“Kilmarnock will equally be up for the game, so it will be good, and we’re looking forward to it.”
On targets, Brown said: “Ardrossan have run away with it this season, so unless there’s some sort of seismic collapse I can’t see them not getting the promotion place.
“We’ll be trying to push for that second position, not because it’s going to get us promoted or anything like that, but just to make a statement for next season, so the guys have something to look forward to.
“But it’s hard for us not to turn round and say to ourselves that we have the Shield coming up, and we should really be thinking about how we can progress in that.
“That’s something we’ve really spoke about, and the biggest challenge I have as a coach is that the guys work towards goals, like promotion, or cup wins, league wins or whatever, and if those goals are no longer there, they think why am I working, why am I doing this?
“That’s something we’re working really hard to change.
“If we can get them to think about what they need to do in this next minute, and stitch 80 of them together, hopefully we’ve got a really resilient team that can put some decent points behind teams and get some silverware back up at East Kilbride.”
Kick-off on Saturday is 2pm.