Management thoughts on facing up to Manchester United

Posted on Saturday, July 23rd, 2011

Mike says –

“We had a short session this morning, gave Chris Flockhart a feel of the ball after his holiday, worked out who was available for tomorrow and generally gave me a chance to say hello after three weeks in the Spanish sun. From our first team pool of 24 players only 5 are unavailable for tomorrow so Gavin Malin, Chris Smith, David Etale, Jonathan Seeley and Keith “The Hoff” McLeod are the only players to miss out for various reasons.  That leaves 19 players who will strip although there are doubts about Ali MacKinnon who has a slight strain and we’ll leave it up to him whether he wants to take to the park or not.

How do Sam and I approach the game? Do we set up our stall with our fittest 11 players and battle out as respectable a score as we can or do we try to take the game to the opposition and have a real go? Let’s face it tomorrow is more than likely the only time any Spartans player is ever going to get the chance to play Manchester United so we have to let the 19 available players time on the park. Do we start strong then bring the younger boys on? do we mix it up?  do we go fit rather than flair? do we accept that this is not your normal pre-season friendly and just go out and enjoy it?

Actually as I write this I’m wearing a top which says Spartans v Manchester United XI on our 60th Anniversary in the “Ronnie Swan Challenge”. I think we should let them win and go down to Old Trafford and let them defend their trophy next summer. 

Seriously tomorrow is a great day for our club. Tomorrow is a great game for our players. Tomorrow could also be an uncomfortable afternoon for Sam and myself. We will shape the team to go out and compete and we’ll change things around to accommodate all our players. We have to enjoy the occasion, enjoy the atmosphere but if we don’t compete to the best of our ability I for one won’t be a happy co-manager after the game.

Let’s hope Sam and I have a smile on our faces after 90 minutes.”

Mike