“It’ll still be a couple of weeks until the boys are really at their peak levels of fitness - it'll be one of the toughest pre-seasons I imagine that the boys will experience. The most important thing for me is that we go into the season and the competitive games come around, we have to be ready. The players clearly haven't had a long break, so they haven't deteriorated a great deal.
“I’m delighted with the fitness levels so early on. Every squad out there is getting pushed and pushed and the demands are always quite high at this time of the season. “I think any player will tell you it’s been quite tough. “It gives me a good opportunity to really run the rule over them and I'm glad to see that one or two of them have really taken their chance - not just with the goals but in the last ten days, a couple of the players have really stepped up, which I'm very pleased about." HIGH DEMANDSĪfter coming in at the tail end of the last campaign, this summer offers Goodwin the first real chance to embed his ideas on the training pitch. “We’ve had quite a few of them (Academy graduates) up training with the first team since we've came back. Our first test of the 2023/24 season presented an opportunity for a number of our Academy graduates to stake their claim, with Rory MacLeod and Chris Mochrie both adding their names to the score sheet. There were decent individual performances and a good opportunity for the new guys to get playing with their new teammates." GRADUATE GOALS We hit the woodwork on a couple of occasions and then the East Fife goalkeeper made one or two very, very good saves in the first half. “We scored some good goals and possibly could have scored some more as well. Kicking off our pre-season with a win was key for Goodwin who highlighted, “We want to get used to that winning feeling.” It is still very much a fitness exercise albeit you want to try and implement some of the tactical elements alongside some of the stuff that we have been working on during the week.” THAT WINNING FEELING “Today was the perfect opportunity for each player to get 45 minutes. The players have been brilliant in the last ten days and have worked really, really hard” said Goodwin. “It’s always a very important part of the season in terms of getting the fitness levels up.
Speaking after the match, the Gaffer touched on the importance of building momentum, a tough training regime and looking ahead to a packed-out July.
The Terrors took on East Fife yesterday afternoon, starting our pre-season with a 3-2 victory at The Dundee United Training Centre, St Andrews. Jim Goodwin spoke to DUTV following our first pre-season run out. 2022/23 Advertising & Sponsorship Brochure
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