Tuesday 16th July, 2013 at 1:55pm
Manager Alan Archibald was fairly content when [link:HOME] spoke to him after last night’s 0-0 draw with Livingston. Alan commenting;
“The game had a bit of bite about it which was good. We know all about Livingston; they play good football and they did that tonight and knocked the ball about well. I thought that we looked good going forward ourselves and had a couple of good moves. I just felt that we could have done things a little quicker at times and could have been a bit sharper. When we do do things sharply we look hard to play against.”
After a bit of pre-season slackness had crept into the performance at Dumbarton at the weekend the manager was pleased to see his defence keep a clean sheet last night.
“There were one or two wee things; I think it is just about impossible to get rid of them entirely. It seems to happen in all pre-season games. I’m delighted though with the clean sheet and it’s something to build on. It something you can start to take pride in and it’s good for the goalkeeper, no matter who is in goal, and for the back four to keep a clean sheet.”
Alan continued;
“I think the games have been getting tougher. You saw tonight that Livingston are a fit side and have played a few games. We go now to Arbroath on Saturday and it will be similar again as they start their league campaign quite early. We know that that will be another tough pre-season game for us.”
Coming up after that is a home game with Cypriot side AEL Limassol and that fixture is one that the manager is looking forward to.
“I don’t know how far they are along with their preparation but it’s always a bit different playing a side from abroad. I always enjoyed it pre-season when you got to play someone a little different. We’ve played Livingston and Dumbarton this pre-season mainly because they play on grass pitches. We played them both last season and I know it is frustrating for the fans to play them again but if you want to try and stay off the astroturf you don’t have too much choice in Scotland anymore.”
Once again last night’s game gave the manager the opportunity to cast his eyes over a number of trialists and his assessment was a positive one.
“I thought that they did well. You are never quite sure what you are going to get when you get CVs in and people recommend players but I thought they did really well tonight. It must be hard for a trialist coming in and only having about 45 minutes or an hour to show what you can do but I thought that they did well.”
So with a couple more pre-season games to go will they can further opportunities to impress?
“I’m not too sure as I need to weigh up what is best for the Club in regards to getting players in and getting my own players match fit and ready to go for the start of the season. We’ll think it over in the next day or two and then see what Saturday brings.”
