Ice Cold Millar!

With over a month having passed since the Bully Wee’s last action, www.clydefc.co.uk took the opportunity to speak to Stuart Millar for an update on the club’s battle with the winter weather.

Clyde’s head coach was frustrated after a further postponement at Annan on Saturday:-

“It was a major disappointment to hear of the game being called off. It is frustrating and also costly, as the late postponement means we can’t avoid things such as bus hire. Unfortunately that is just the problems associated with playing through the winter in Scotland.”

It’s not just the matches that have been affected, as Stuart explained:-

“Training has been very difficult. It’s been limited as we have been forced indoors but availability is difficult. Senior clubs do not have a divine right to get pitches and upstage other teams or guys who have block bookings. Those people are the bread and butter for indoor facilities so we have had to be flexible in getting training nights organised. There is also the reality that at some stages we have been told by police not to travel. It hasn’t been easy but virtually everyone is in the same boat.”

As is normally the case with unexpected breaks, they have worked out better for some than others. Stuart continued:-

“Neil McGowan would have missed some matches through injury but the break should hopefully have given him enough time to recover. Murray Henderson’s work commitments would also have prevented him from playing but unfortunately we still have Alan Lithgow’s suspension hanging over us so there are pluses and minuses.

“We’ve been unable to build on a decent performance at Berwick, where Marc McCusker and Willie Sawyers were the partnership up front; they both need games and match practice so they’re two more that have lost out.

“We’ve also learned that Willie will require further surgery in the future. He is keen to play on in the short term, but it’s obviously a concern and one we will have to monitor closely.”

To conclude, Stuart looked ahead to the New Year and the opening of the January transfer window:-

“Hopefully it will be a time when we can freshen things up but I know that players will need to leave before we can make additions. I don’t envisage large scale changes and in my opinion we don’t need that. We believe we have talented players but have not got the balance right yet – January gives us an opportunity to fix that and that is what we will try our best to do.”