My home leave was spent on fitness regime
Clark Robertson feels primed to help Ashdod dart up the Israeli Premier League.
El i Lev i ’ s squad finished sixth of 14 last season but struggled at the start of this term as Robertson bedded in.
The former Scotland Under-21 cap has been one of the top performers since action resumed after the October attack by Hamas militants.
Ashdod earned a stalemate point from their postponed game at Maccabi Bnei Reineh when games resumed.
Then they picked up their first win of the campaign by beating Hapoel Tel Av i v in midweek.
And Ashod recorded a X-X win over Hapoel Petach-Tikva away from home in yesterday’s action.
Robertson stuck to a personal training programme during his six weeks in Scotland.
And he’s confident those lonely shi fts haven’t posed a problem for his performances.
“I treated it like an off-season, going to the gym, running on my own and doing a bit of ball work myself,” he said.
“It’s never the same, really, as proper training.
“We kept in touch on the WhatsApp group and the general manager messaged every few days to ask how we were.
“The coach would also message to make sure we were on top of our fitness work. We didn’t have much time as a group to prepare for the league starting again so it was important we all kept on top of fitness.
“But I feel as if I got back up to speed quickly and played two 90 minutes in three days.
“I was home for six weeks. I was constantly in touch with my teammates and staff from the club to see what the situation was, when the league would return and when they wanted their foreign players back. “I’ve missed playing and I’m glad to be back on the pitch again.”
The Scot has formed an alliance with fellow overseas signings David C u p e rma n ( f r om Colombia), Jordan Sebban ( France) and Lucas Salinas (Brazil).
He said: “It’s quite a mix in our group! We go for meals after training and hang out quite a bit.
“They’re all good lads and speak good English.
“We’ve had a tough start to the league but we’re starting to pick up points now.
“We’ve a young team with good young players. The league is very competitive.
“We’ve got Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv as the two top teams but, outwith that, there’s not much in it.”
I was home for six weeks .. I’ve missed playing and glad to be back on the pitch