Cove Rangers captain Mitch Megginson insists he and his players are ready for their first game of the season tomorrow – despite having not played a minute of preparation against any other team.
All three of Cove’s pre-season matches were cancelled in the last week due to a Covid scare at the club, with Megginson one of the players forced to self-isolate.
Megginson knows the disruption has been far from ideal for his club.
He said: “It’s hard to gauge where we’re at, but I think that is the case for a lot of clubs as friendlies being cancelled, positive tests, disrupted training sessions and people having to isolate has become frequent across the country.
“We had one training session before we were disrupted and it looked as if the new boys were settling in quickly. Everyone’s professional, they’ve played at a high level and you could see they wanted to get straight into it at the club. I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
The Cove skipper’s isolation ended today, freeing him up in time to face Stirling Albion in the first Premier Sports Cup group match at Balmoral Stadium tomorrow.
Megginson considers himself lucky to have been able to continue working on his fitness despite being at home.
He said: “We’ve had a couple of training sessions as a club but today was when my isolation ended as I was one of the unlucky ones.
“Fortunately I’ve just moved house and I have a gym at home so I have managed to do a bit of work on my own at home but I haven’t been able to train with any of my team-mates.”
The lack of match preparation means tomorrow’s match will be the club’s first of any description against another team this summer.
Megginson believes the lack of preparation matches has altered his club’s approach to the competition but is pleased to have four matches in the next three games to help Cove prepare for their league campaign.
He said: “It’s not ideal, clearly. I think a lot of clubs look at the group stage of this competition as an extended pre-season platform anyway, but when the draw was made we looked at our group and we fancied our chances.
“But things have changed since then. We’ve had no pre-season friendlies and our first game together will be against Stirling Albion.
“It’s now all about getting boys up to speed for the first game of the league season against Falkirk, which is our main priority.
“There’s been some training sessions, but as one of the players who had to isolate it’s hard for me to say how we’re looking. We’ll get a better idea when we play Stirling.”
