Jags boss hoping to make systematic progress in Highland League
Jags boss Ryan Esson and his players are chomping at the leash to get back to competitive actrion after a frustrating spell on the sidelines.
The Grantown club was keen to build on an impressive 3-3 draw away to Forres Mechanics on December 21 during which they showed great character.
In fact the club’s run of regular games came to an end in mid-November and since then they have been mainly frustrated by the wintry weather.
Frustrating as it has been, the lack of matches has allowed Esson and his assistants to work on the team’s shape in training and he believes that this will pay dividends.
He said: “I am really looking forward to the second half of the season.
“The first five to six weeks after I came in we had midweek games so there was no time to get a system going.
“We were just playing game after game which was tough going as we could only show the players what was required of them on a tactics board or we were only doing a light training session on the Monday to try and implement some of our ideas.”
But since then Esson has had more time to implement his methods and key to that has been bringing in more versatility so he can respond to different situations in games.
He said: “When I look across the team now we have players who can fill two or more positions - in fact the majority of the squad can now do this.
“We are now adopting a system where it does not matter if I ring the changes because the players know what is expected of them in different positions - and that was not the case when I first arrived.
“I was keen to get that system in play. Don’t get me wrong, it is still a work in progress.
“We are consistently trying to improve decision-making, players being in the right positions and having that balance between wanting to attack but knowing that when we lose the ball we can get back into the correct shape quickly.
“We have worked on this a lot and this will continue.”
The Jags should return to action tomorro when they travel to Grant Park which has been one of their more successful hunting grounds in recent seasons.
They also had a 3-0 home win at home to Lossiemouth earlier in the season so will be looking to complete a rare Highland League double.
Esson said: “It will be a tough game.
“We got a decent result when we played them previously but each game is a new challenge.
“But I am hoping that if we put in the same kind of performance that we did last time against Lossie then we can get a positive result.”
Esson is relieved to get back to playing: “It definitely should be on - the weather is really good and the mild conditions are meant to continue albeit it could get a bit windy.
“It has been tough.”
With last Saturday’s game at home to champions Buckie Thistle unsurprisingly called off because of a snowbound Seafield Park, Esson secured an indoor training session at Dingwall.
He said: “We have had to be careful that we do not overdo things in training. We do not want to fatigue the legs for when Saturday comes.”
The boss has pretty much a full squad to choose from.
Centreback Jordan Laidlaw is back in training but this weekend is likely to come to soon for him.
Esson said: “Jordan is back in with the boys but he has not done a full training session yet.
“We are stepping things up so hopefully he will be back to playing in the next few weeks.”
Long term absentee Jamie Calder remains out but he is back to running after suffering a knee injury more than a month ago.
