No Saturday off for players

04/10/13: JJ on Rangers match postponement - "It's definitely a bit of a compliment.

The postponement of the fixture away to Rangers next Saturday has come as no surprise to Jim Jefferies. He revealed that that outcome had been predictable, given the match was during a period when several Rangers players would be on international call up:-

"I spoke to Ally a couple of weeks ago because I knew it fell on an international weekend. I know Scotland have only got one game but they've got players representing other countries and they might have two games. So, I always thought the game had a chance of being postponed. They postponed their Ramsdens Cup tie against Queen of the South when it was on the weekend of the Belgium game.

"He did say to me if they had boys away there would be the possibility they would apply for it to be changed, which is in the rules. Ally was expecting it to be five players that were called up - but I joked with him that it was just because we had beaten Ayr United 5-1!

"I told him we were keen for the game to go ahead because we just want to keep playing - and so does Ally, but it's their prerogative to appeal and they've had the go-ahead to postpone it. That's the rules, there's not a lot we can do about it. They've given us a couple of dates but BT, who were due to be covering the game, might want to try and fit it in some other time to suit them. Of the two dates they've given us, it looks like it is more suited to being November 5."

When Jim Jefferies called his players in to tell them the match wasn't going ahead next week he viewed this in a very positive manner:-

"I told them that Ally had given them the biggest compliment ever, because - even with the size of squad they've got - they feel they need their international players for the game. It's definitely a bit of a compliment.

"It will be a good game and I've told the players we've just got to concentrate until we do play them and pick up as many points as possible. The secret in any league when you've got the Old Firm in it is to make sure you handle everybody else well, so when you come round to playing them the game's got a meaning because you can get close to them if you pull it off."

The postponement may send Pars fans off to watch junior football for a week but the players will not be having a Saturday off. Jim Jefferies has his own ideas when it comes to dealing with blank fixture days:-

"I've always worked on the principle - and it's always worked - that an early break works better. You'll see a lot of clubs who will give the players a long weekend off when it's international weekend, but by the time you get them in on the Monday it takes them two days to get the head right and suddenly there's a game upon you on the Saturday. Whereas I prefer to give them Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off, and then get them in on the Thursday and Friday, and even Saturday morning, and that gets them back into the swing of things, so when they come back in on the Monday morning they've been in and it doesn't take them two or three days to get their football head back on.

"You can see from our games the tempo, the work-rate and the enthusiasm of our players, and they do that in training as well. So, a rest is as good as training anyway for them.

"I don't mind the international breaks because, with a young squad and a small squad, it gives me the chance to ensure the players aren't burning themselves out, because they do work hard. You can never accuse them of not putting the effort in, so sometimes a wee break helps.

"So, that way if I've got them in on Thursday and Friday it will be easy to have a bounce game if that's what we decide to do, although it's not easy to get a game when other clubs are giving their players the weekend off.  I think the break's come at the right time because Forfar's Astro turf takes a wee bit more out your legs. We'd rather have the game against Rangers but we'll treat it as just like an international weekend."

Manager on Thursday: ahead of Forfar Athletic away

Ryan Thomson in action at Ibrox