Manager ahead of Airdrieonians

16/01/14: JJ weighs up options for Saturday

Jim Jefferies is hoping that he will have the luxury of selection problems when Saturday comes.  Looking ahead to the home match against Airdrieonians he said:-

"Alex Whittle and Callum Morris are back training Faiss has a two-game ban because of the incident (v Stranraer) and also Kerr Young has reached the number of bookings which bans him from the 16th so he'll have to serve that.

"If Callum doesn't make it, it's a case of thinking caps on. We might have signed a player by then that could cover us, you never know, but first and foremost I think if Callum comes through the training session it will ease a wee bit of the concern. If he doesn't then we'll have to work around the clock to try and see what we can do.

"Lewis has done fantastically well and hopefully he continues but I know from experience that sometimes young boys take a wee dip. There's the example of Hearts, where they've not got the option. They have to keep playing the youngsters and it destroys their confidence. We've got that wee bit more of a luxury, where we can put somebody in and take them out.

"With Ryan Williamson, Ross Millen is back fit but Ryan has done well enough to hold down the position, and Ross knows that. But if ever Ryan dips a wee bit then he's got competition for places and that's not a bad thing.  At the same time, we know there will be a wee dip and if you take them out of it they can quickly come back in, and their confidence will not be shattered."

The Manager also commented to the media over the Club's position over their training facilities at Pitreavie:-

"I just get kept up to date by the Chairman and the Pars United board, and I knew about this a couple of weeks ago. I believe Gavin (Masterton) took the lease from the Council and used it as some sort of security but I'm not getting involved in the ins and outs.

"If it comes to the situation where the Club were asked to pay a large sum of money for this that they couldn't afford then fine, we'll just go to East End Park and try to get another facility.

"I'm hoping it doesn't come to that because Pitreavie is a good base. If they can maybe put a bit of work and a bit of money into it to just bring it a wee bit more up to date, it's a great facility. It's nice and handy to get to.

"There's plans in place for a new astro pitch which would be great, there's plans that we could maybe try and help the drainage as well, and it's a great area. It just needs a bit of work on it. If that's not possible then we've got other irons in the fire.

"If it wasn't at Pitreavie we'll report to East End Park where we've got facilities up there. We're hoping it can all be resolved before then, but it's nothing for us or the players to be concerned about. It's not something we should get involved in - it's between Pars United, the Council and Gavin.

"We've got good contacts and the High School has been great for us. Even if it means coming into training a wee bit later to accommodate people with different times, it's not a problem.

"Actually there's nothing to stop us changing and coming down to hire the pitch at Pitreavie because it's a facility and they can't discriminate. We could do that, but I'm sure common sense will prevail."