The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Mackay shrugs off ‘silly’ remark by Reid
Dons defender Taylor provides insight into new training regime Thistle team up with Jambos to launch legal action
Home showers, regular tests and occupying one quarter of the pitch with one teammate.
Welcome to pre-season training, coronavirus style.
The new normal for players is going to take some getting used to but Aberdeen defender Ash Taylor believes the Dons’ sport science department have left no stone unturned in ensuring manager Derek McInnes and his coaching staff can put the players through their paces safely and with optimum efficiency.
He said: “The sports scientists, coaching staff and physios have put stuff in place so we’re ready to train at a proper intensity.
“They’re easing us into it at the minute. It’s not proper, full-on intensity. We’ve been off for 13 weeks so you don’t want to come back and start getting niggles and injuries.
“Thirteen weeks off from football is a long time, normally we just get four weeks. Monday was about getting ourselves going, getting the legs going and getting into a routine again.
“Tuesday was a bit more of that. It’s gradual but the intensity is still there. It’s about getting our movements with the ball.”
The players will undertake the longest preseason of their careers at Cormack Park with a sevenweek block of preparation planned out in preparation of an August 1 return to Premiership duty.
Rigorous checks and balances will also be the order of the day as the Dons work on keeping all their players healthy as well as fit. Taylor was happy to go through what a typical day of training will be due to the pandemic.
He said: “We were tested on Sunday and got the results and everybody was fine, which was good.
“It’s been pretty straightforward and the club have done a good job of putting things in place for us. It’s been a smooth process for us.
“Training is socially distanced in twos in a quarter of the pitch. That’s the guidelines we’ve been given. You’re in twos all around the pitch.
“It’s about getting our movements with the ball”
“The training has been good in terms of keeping boys away from one another but in a distance where you can communicate with things that you need to.”
Social distancing is at the forefront of the training programme the players are following but so, too, is working in as sterile an environment as possible.
Taylor explained: “We just pull up in our cars, wait until we get our temperature checked and if that’s all clear, you go to the car park and you wait until you’re called over by one of the coaching staff.
“You head over, sterilise yourself before you head in then start your training.”
Partick Thistle have joined forces with Hearts to launch a legal challenge to their relegation after a donor offered to fund their court battle.
Both clubs and Stranraer were consigned to the drop on Monday when the latest and last attempt to reconfigure the Scottish leagues failed.
While Hearts immediately launched legal action, Thistle baulked at the cost and risk involved and vowed to focus on building a squad to go right back up to the Scottish Championship.
But the Scottish Professional Football League now faces the prospect of defending its decisions in court against two member clubs.
Thistle chairwoman
Jacqui Low said in a statement: “Yesterday, we said that court action was our preferred route to challenging our relegation to League One.
“It was only a lack of funding that stopped us.
“Last night, in response to our statement, we received a proposal to fully fund legal action should we wish to pursue it, at no cost to Thistle.
“After careful board consideration, we have now accepted this extremely generous offer of unexpected help.
“Today, following discussions with Hearts, we have agreed that we will launch a joint legal challenge to resolve what others have failed to do since April.”
Low added: “To those who think we should just move on and accept what’s been dished out to us, yesterday 26 clubs put themselves first. Today, we have now been given the opportunity to do the same.”
The Maryhill side were two points adrift in the Scottish Championship with a game in hand when the coronavirus outbreak suspended play.
Clubs later voted to terminate the season with final placings decided on a points-per-game average.
Brora Rangers playermanager Steven Mackay has dismissed comments by Albion Rovers manager Brian Reid who expressed his relief at not facing a trip to Dudgeon Park next season.
Highland League champions Brora had been in line to be promoted to the fourth tier of Scottish football as part of a 14-10-10-10 proposal. However the plans fell through after failing to receive enough support from SPFL clubs.
Reid claimed he was relieved the plans spared Rovers from making the 450-mile roundtrip twice a season, and said: “It saves us a trip to Brora.
“I never realised how far away Brora is – it’s nearly up at John O’Groats.
“It would have seen us leaving at 6am to get there for a Saturday game, so that would have been a long way up.
“No disrespect to Brora, I’m sure it’s a lovely place, but in terms of the geography of it, it would have been a long way to go and a lot of expense to the club to go up there.
“We’d have to get the bus, stop over for a prematch meal somewhere. It would have been a bit of a cost.”
Cattachs boss Mackay played down Reid’s comments and said: “It’s a bit of a silly comment to make.
“I wouldn’t say it’s typical but you’ve had instances in the past where you feel teams in the south can sometimes be disrespectful to teams in the Highlands.
“It was similar when Caley Thistle and Ross County got elected into the Scottish league, people saw it as a bit of a burden having to travel up there.”
He added: “It certainly wouldn’t affect our mindset or mentality.”