Management thoughts on Lothian tonight.

Posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Mike says –

“The fact that Lothian went down to Gretna on Saturday in the South Cup will make them very difficult opponents this evening. They’ll be hurting and wanting to get that defeat out of their system and we just happen to be next on the agenda. Add to that the return of their talisman striker from suspension and the fact they feel aggrieved at not taking something from our league game at the Academy in January and you have a very motivated group of individuals.

As a club Lothian are on the up. They had a good season last time round and are looking to improve on that this term. In my almost 20 years of managing in EOS football the balance of power has changed every 5 or 6 years from the Border giants to a South influence and always a threat from Midlothian. More recently Edinburgh itself appears to be “where it’s at” as Lothian along with City, Tynecastle and the Uni clubs to a lesser degree have all challenged near the top of the table.

It’s testament to how far Lothian have come that their fixture is one of the first to be noted down when a set of games are released. They are a very good team well managed and coached by people who know the game.

Sam and I like to think we know the game as well and we’re ably assisted by Mike, Eric, Walter and Dougie. We have a very good squad of players this time round and are looking to improve on last season. We went out of the King Cup at the first stage last year and want to improve by a few rounds at least this time round. Having said that we are in the middle of 4 fixtures in 2 weeks and Saturday’s was a sapping park at Crichton. 

The players are aware Sam and I like to keep everyone ticking over and there’s a good chance we’ll freshen the team up this evening. Jorge who came on and scored twice as well as assisting Gavin to his hat-trick will definitely start as will the returning Flocks and maybe one or two others. As I say the players are more aware than comfortable with our selection policy but to a man they’ll agree that Sam and I can change things round without weakening the team.

We are all looking forward to playing a team who like to get the ball down on the ground and play football.”

Mike