Elgin City manager Allan Hale speaks about the pre-season win at Buckie Thistle for Shaun Wood’s testimonial and looks ahead to Premier Sports Cup opener against Hibernian.
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00:00Yeah, I think we saw a mixture of the good and the bad, to be honest.
00:04I think inevitably with pre-season, when you start to make all the changes,
00:08I think, you know, your shape then becomes really disjointed and the players make really poor decisions and a player becomes really slack.
00:15I thought Bucky started the game really well, as we fully expected.
00:18They looked fit, they looked sharp, really good team, winning mentality, you know, they're used to winning.
00:24And it was the perfect game for us, I think, to conclude our pre-season preparations.
00:29To be honest, it was exactly the type of game I think we were expecting and the type of game that we were looking for.
00:35So I'm quite glad that we got that. It was good exercise against two teams, you know, competitive teams and it was a decent game of football.
00:43And, you know, great for Sean to get his turnout as well and pleased that we can be part of a special day for him.
00:50And I thought he put in an excellent performance, as he has done throughout his career.
00:55So I'm glad that he's obviously got a big crowd here to celebrate his day.
00:59I think it's important to recognise that, I think, first and foremost.
01:02But yeah, for us, I think we got out of the game what we wanted to get out of it.
01:05You know, more minutes on the leg, more minutes on the leg, sorry, the opportunity to work on a couple of things.
01:10And yeah, you know, we've came away with another victory, which is important to try and build that winning mindset that we're trying to install in their own group.
01:18So yeah, overall, pleased with the 90 minutes.
01:22He's just instinctive, you know, and he sees his lapses of concentration and he punishes people for errors, you know, and he's took his two goals really well.
01:30Could have had another couple, probably should have, to be fair.
01:32The one in the first half where he hit the post, you know, really should have scored that one, to be fair.
01:36That's probably the best chance out of the day for him.
01:39But credit to him, he's only been in a few days and he looks fit, he looks sharp, he looks hungry.
01:44We really struggled with injury, you know, from March onwards last year, which probably affected his tally in terms of the numbers that he expects of himself and what we expect of him.
01:54But yeah, we've worked really hard to get him in.
01:57Obviously, we're grateful that we have, because you can see what he's going to bring.
02:01But I just think, you know, even Wally, not up to fully speed yet, and since he's came in, I think Dylan Gavin is going to bring a lot.
02:07You know, we need to get a bit of work into him in terms of the conditioning side of things.
02:12And then, you know, we've got so many players in the forward areas now that it's quite exciting for me as a manager because I'm going to have a headache most weeks to pick a team.
02:21It's a great problem to have and it's a problem that we never had, you know, when we came in, that me and you spoke about plenty of times.
02:28So, yeah, I'm satisfied that we've got that depth and, you know, pleased with the players that we've brought in as well.
02:33And you can see that they're all going to contribute in their own way, which will benefit us as a team as well.
02:38And now it's onwards to another test next week against another team in green and white and a very different challenge altogether.
02:44You know, it's a great occasion for the Football Club and for us, we want to try and showcase ourselves in the best possible way.
02:50We don't want to take a heavy defeat and, you know, not being able to implement the way that we want to play.
02:55We want to try and force our style on the game as well and try and affect the game in a positive manner.
03:01And that's going to be our approach. We'll try and be positive and in our set-up, we'll try and be positive in terms of how we ask the players to play.
03:08And we'll ask the players to be brave and try and play football and, you know, try and showcase the ability that we do have in the squad as well
03:16and try and give Hibs a good game. It'll be tough.
03:19We're going to chase the ball a lot. We're going to have to cover a lot of space.
03:21We're going to have to deal with a lot of rotation against a team that will be really sharp.
03:26I think they've just spent the last two weeks abroad, double sessions most days.
03:30I wish I had that luxury. I wish I had that luxury.
03:34But, yeah, it'll be a really good test for us and one that we're really looking forward to.
03:37And, yeah, for me, I think the perfect preparation for that was the game that we got today.