Manager on Friday

25/06/21: PG - “I know that we will get better, I know that we will get stronger and I know that we will get better players in the door, that is for sure before the season kicks off.”

Peter Grant said that he was absolutely delighted to sign Deniz Mehmet because he considers the goalkeeping position as is a place that has got to be competitive.

“I always say that your training ground is the area that should be your most competitive because you want guys fighting for their life on the training pitch. It makes your team like that, fighting for everything, fighting to get in the team and that because a natural habit come a Saturday.

“I think Fôn has been excellent and now with Deniz coming in it is up to them to fight to go and get that position. We have had a young one with Cammy being in for a long time but now we have an experienced goalkeeper there as well, who has played recently in semi finals and whatever, he is champing at the bit to get started.

“It is great that we have that competitive edge for goalkeeper but now we have to get that everywhere else on the football pitch.”

The new boss has stressed that he hasn’t come in with any pre conceived ideas about anybody. Competition for places is key and there is a blank canvas as far as his team selection is concerned:-

“I come in here and I say to them ‘go and show me that you can play’. The bottom line is, I don’t put any pressure on them, they know what I want. They know that I want to move the ball quickly, they know I want it passed forward, they know that I want them to get tight and stop the opposition playing, they know I want to score goals and I don’t want to concede goals.

“That is football, it has never changed. How do we do that? The goals that we lost on Wednesday night were very poor goals. We do not want to get into that habit. I can make an excuse saying x, y and z were playing here but they were very poor goals. You are winning the game with seconds to go and you concede a stupid goal from having easy possession on the halfway line.

“There are things that we have to learn. The boys have worked extremely hard, the effort they have put in, the commitment they have put in has been brilliant. I have been really chuffed with them. Their fitness levels have been excellent which has allowed that.

“I can see tired legs, tired minds. It is okay running with the ball in training but when you get punished in an exercise on the football pitch, that tells you where your fitness levels are at.

“I know that we will get better, I know that we will get stronger and I know that we will get better players in the door, that is for sure before the season kicks off.”

Peter revealed the reason behind some players absence on Wednesday night, giving a rundown on each:-

“Paul Watson picked up an injury in training. We are hoping that he is getting there and hopefully within the next two weeks he will be back in training. Craig Wighton picked up a little knock round about his knee but he is going to be fine thankfully. There are no issues at all with that, I am delighted because it was a concern because it was sore. We got it checked right away and everything is fine there. Probably next week he will be back in full training.

“Vytas Gašpuitis is just back in the country on Monday. Iain Wilson has a bit of tendonitis on his Achilles so we are just making sure that he is right. Obviously with the surface that we are training on we don’t want to rush that.

“They are doing a lot of work away from it. The physio has been working them really hard along with Paul Green, the Sports Scientist. They are still getting the same mileage, they are not getting away with that.

“Iain is probably a couple of weeks away yet. It is the same with Ryan Dow but he is getting stronger every day and we are delighted with his progress. The good thing is they are all going in the right direction.

“I’d say Craig will be back quicker, Paul will be back quicker. Ryan and Iain a little longer and we are delighted that we might have got to the bottom of Lewis Martin’s problem.

“We are hoping that Lewis is on the road to recovery now. He deserves that because it has been a really torrid fifteen months for him when he has not played. I have seen him play when I was Alloa manager and seen him play in every position and I think at a football club you need that type of character. He is a fantastic boy who is working extremely hard to try and get fit. We will give him that opportunity to try and do that because he deserves that.”