Saints WFC manager plays it again to make progress

St Johnstone WFC manager Jason McCrindle has been using time without competitive action wisely.

The Scottish Women’s Premier League 2 season is on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.

But McCrindle has made sure to look back at previous video clips to pinpoint areas of improvement for when the football restarts.

Saints sat fifth in the table when the league suspension came into play last month.

“I felt we’d had a good first half to the season and we’re not too many points off a play-off place,” McCrindle said. “It was about building on that.

“Obviously the league has stopped and it’s really difficult to plan without an official start date.

“I’ve been looking at old clips of our players in the squad and then clips from earlier this season.

“It was about seeing how their game has progressed, developed and identifying areas they can improve individually and as a team.

“Looking back, we know where we went wrong in the games we lost. It has been easy to identify that.”

Online sessions have been continuing and McCrindle again praised the attitude of his players for keeping on top of their own fitness.

“The players have been taking responsibility for their own fitness,”he said. “We’re giving them a session but they also do their own stuff.

“The stop-start is frustrating but the team has shown good maturity and are wanting to come back even stronger.

“I’ve said that we really want to compete this year and I feel we’ve been able to do that so far.

“When football does come back, we’ll be in a good place.

“We actually had a couple of injuries so they will obviously be back playing.

“And we’re looking at a couple of trialists coming in.”

The Saints squad includes a number of talented younger players, with Rebecca McGowan and Hannah Clark having already represented Scotland at under-19 level.

McCrindle would love to see club stars move on to represent the senior national team one day, following in the footsteps of Perth’s Lisa Evans and Lana Clelland.

“It’s something for them to strive towards,”McCrindle said.

“It’s really up to them. As a club we can do as much as we can.

“It’s what they do away from the training and what they are prepared to do.

“If they can see it’s possible to go and compete and play for their country, there is no reason why they can’t do it.

“It’s obviously going to be difficult for players from SWPL2 to get selected but it’s about the next step if they were to move on, whether that be up to SWPL1 or even down to England.”