Barry puts emphasis on fitness
Ferguson drives squad hard
Clyde gaffer Barry Ferguson is preparing his team for an upcoming tour of the Highlands.
The Bully Wee are set to play Wick Academy tonight ( Wednesday, July 15) and Brora Rangers on Saturday, July 18. On Saturday however, Clyde’s friendly at East Kilbride Thistle finished 1-1.
Clyde scored the opening goal courtesy of new signing Scott Linton. He picked up the ball on the edge of the box and powered it home past EK’s keeper Alan Greer, putting the visitors into the lead at half-time.
However, late in the second half EK equalised after Michael Giblin’s corner was headed in by Mark Blakey.
Barry told the official site he had expected the players to find the match difficult in terms of fitness, saying: “The boys were given a hard, hard week at training before the match – we ran them into the ground, to be honest. I knew they would be tired after the match and I wanted them to be tired at this stage of the pre-season schedule we have.
“From that point of view I wasn’t too concerned about how the match went, it was more of a fitness exercise.”
Michael Bolochoweckyj was forced to leave the pitch with a knock, and David Gormley and Scott Durie took no part in the match due to injury.
Barry added: “Michael is okay. We’re not sure if he’ll be able to play up north but he won’t be out for long.
“Gormley has bruising to his ribs and is in a similar position.
“Unfortunately Scott is probably going to be out for at least six weeks with a double hernia.
“He was seeing a specialist today so we’ll have a better idea what we’re looking at over the next few days.
“He’s at least taken part in some of the preseason schedule which will give him a decent base, but we’ll need to wait and see how long he’ll be unavailable for.”
Durie will, however, still travel to the Highlands as part of a full squad making the journey.
Barry added: “As I said before, it’s going to be a good week for the boys to get to know each other even more and that was one of the main reasons why I wanted to have a summer tour.
“The two matches against Wick and Brora will be tough, but most important is everyone being together in a full-time environment.
“There’s a lot of hard work coming up this week.”