Pre-Season Schedule Announced

Barry Ferguson has confirmed The Bully Wee’s pre-season schedule ahead of the 2016-17 campaign, which includes a training camp in Jersey.

The first training session of the summer will take place on Tuesday 21st June, before the squad travel to Jersey on 23rd June. Included in the five-day visit to the Channel Island will be an open training session on Saturday 25th June, for any fans of The Bully Wee that are intending to travel.

After returning from Jersey, the training schedule will continue, with three friendly matches also confirmed; Saturday 2nd July against Airdrie, Tuesday 5th July against Dunfermline Athletic and Saturday 9th July against a Celtic XI. All of those matches will take place at Broadwood and will be open to the public.

The first competitive match, in the newly packaged Betfred Cup, will take place on Saturday 16th July against Kilmarnock. The Ladbrokes League 2 season will begin on Saturday 6th August.

Speaking to the official website, Barry said: “The trip to Jersey gives us the best possible opportunity to fully prepare for the season ahead. It’ll be a demanding five days for the squad, with every day being used for double training sessions, which at that stage is the best way for us to prepare for the friendly matches to follow.

“We’ll welcome any supporters that are in Jersey to watch our Saturday session and have a close-up look at how we work.

“It’s a huge advantage to get the full group away together early in the summer. Our chief executive, David Douglas, has played a big part in organising it and, alongside David, I’ll also be taking the opportunity to carry out some mental health charity work while we are there.

“Pre-season is the most important part of the season in my opinion and we’re making every effort to get the preparations right. It’s massive for the players and massive for me.

“The changes to the League Cup format and the earlier start to the season mean that we have to get as much as possible done at an early stage. We’ll be using the League Cup as part of our pre-season schedule and we’ll make sure that everyone is at 100% before the League 2 campaign begins; that’s our bread and butter.”