Gordon Moffat welcomes extra time to prepare after pandemic training gap

West of Scotland Football League clubs were able to return to the training ground two weeks ago, providing they had submitted evidence that Covid-19 safety protocols would be followed.

The former Rossvale boss is in his first pre-season with the Bankies after joining in September last year, and with restrictions on group sizes to prevent spread of the coronavirus, training is proving to be a little different from what he had in mind.

Speaking to the Post, Moffat has revealed that it is difficult to get his point across to the smaller groups but he is grateful for the extended pre-season after a lengthy time away from the game.

He said: “Because they’ve been off for so long from any sort of training, it’s good for us to gradually build things in - otherwise you would be rushing them into an intensity level that they’re maybe not ready for.

“My main hope is that we get the go ahead to do full group training soon-ish, because there’s a lot I want to do and show, particularly the new guys, how we’re going to play - and it’s quite hard to do that in groups of four.

“We’re starting to drop in some of the ideas of how we will play, but until we get to the full group sessions and can go through our shape and possession drills it’s quite difficult.”

The Bankies boss added that he was pleased at the level of fitness his players returned with after more than five months away, and says he’s keen to get them moving into game-based exercises.

“You can do as much running on the street and around a track as you like,” he said, “but getting back to football-based movement, and having to react, and decision-making with the ball, is completely different.

“You can see there’s a bit of rustiness, but because the boys have worked hard on their general fitness I think we’ll get that back much quicker.

“The guys look really fit and it’s just fine tuning them for football based fitness.”