Manager Brian Reid gave his thoughts as we head into Season 21/22 just as we did the last, with a home League Cup (Premier Sports Cup) clash with cinch Championship side Ayr United:
“We’ll be using the League Cup as pre-season, as a lot of clubs do, but we will still be going out to win the games.
“Ayr will be tough, but they are all tough games for us with Falkirk, Hamilton and Edinburgh City in there as well.
“I know Hoppy [Ayr boss David Hopkin] well. We were at Morton together so I know he’ll have his team ready. It’s good, competitive games for us now and you still want to do well.
“I’m not demeaning the cup in any way. This stage of the season a lot of clubs use it for pre-season and we still want to put performances in and do well in the competition.”
Brian also commented on the squad’s current injuries:
“Aldin has had a minor operation on his groin but he should be back for the start of the league campaign.
“Ryan is probably two or three weeks away as well with his Achilles issue he had when he came off against Annan last season. He’s not quite up to speed yet.
“The plan is to have both of them ready to go for the all-important start of the league.”
He added:
“We signed Charlie Reilly and Max Wright so they are two good additions and I think they’ll really help us in the season ahead but we are still a wee bit short in some areas.”
Recent signing Charlie Reilly also caught up with the media team pre-match:
“I am delighted to be here. Ian [McCall] recommend me to Brian and he gave me a call to come along to training and it worked out really well.
“I just want to play as much as I can, and here I can do that. It was really refreshing to hear from the Manager and those at the club that they want you to succeed beyond this level.
“His pitch was really open, I want to move back up the leagues and here I can give myself an opportunity to do that if I play well regularly and work hard for the team.
I’d say I was a hard-working player, and quite versatile. I can play across the midfield and I don’t mind getting in about the dirty work.
“This weekend will be difficult, but we go into the game knowing it is one we can win if we play our best football.”
