Thistle line up pre-season games
THE countdown to the new Highland League campaign is well and truly on with Strathspey Thistle’s pre-season fixture list set to be finalised this weekend.
Assistant manager Colin Tansley confirmed that the club will go up against a host of junior sides as they look to hit the ground running when the season officially gets under way on Saturday, July 30.
Tansley said: "We have got three or four games lined up at the minute and will be finalising the dates at the weekend.
"We are looking to get four or five games confirmed as part of the pre-season schedule. The squad will be stronger than last season and this will give us the chance to have a look at all of them."
The hard work for the players begins this weekend with plenty of running on the agenda.
Tansley added: "We will be down at Loch Morlich on Saturday and should have about 25 or 26 players there. The ones I have spoken to are raring to go so we are looking towards a good pre-season.
"Nobody has got a place for certain and we have more competition for places than we have had before, which can only be good for the club moving forward.
"The season opens with a game against Nairn County, making it three in a row against one of their nearest neighbours.
"The way things have worked out we played Nairn in the last two games of last season and now will play them in the first game of next season
"It will allow us to see how far we have come. The season before last we couldn’t get any where near Nairn and last season we improved and gave them two competitive games.
"They had to work for the points and in the last game it finished three one with us scoring our first goal against them; even Les Fridge said we had come a long way.
"So what we have to do is try and improve once again and see if we can get something from the game."
