Listen to this James McPake interview
James McPake felt that the friendly wasn’t ideal following so closely on after Sunday’s game against Hearts:-
“That was why some of the squad worked on the pitch before the game. I think in terms of the ones it served its purpose for – Paul Allan, Paul McGowan, people like that, Miller Fenton, Wighty got more minutes again, Michael needed the minutes, Max – there was plenty of that in it.
“In terms of the game, in itself, was an end of pre-season friendly. From the start, we had loads of the ball, were comfortable in the game. There weren’t a lot of chances at either end, but we looked comfortable enough.
“Young Liam Hoggan I thought was excellent in the first part of it when he was playing as a right wing back, then he gets asked to go at left wing back, so loads of positives in terms of that to come out it. It’s certainly served its purpose.”
Your younger players impressed?
“The game became interesting for them. Young players, when they’re coming up and having the demands of first team players – whether that be Paul McGowan, Paul Allan, Michael O’Halloran – those are players that they’ve probably seen on the TV, and trained with a few times over their careers.
“It’s tough enough for them going into an environment like that, but then they go down to ten men, and you need to see them in that. It exposes them to a lot, which I thought they handled great. They weren’t out of place, and Alloa will be a decent League One team again. They finished fourth, made the play-offs last season, and have got some good players in their team. The experience and the benefit they’ll take from the game, and then when we look over it and show them, that will be great for their development.”
What are your thoughts on the red card shown to Chris Hamilton?
“I’ve not seen it back and, to be fair, speaking to Hammy, he says he didn’t see him. I’m just glad the boy’s not injured. I’ll need to see it back before I can comment any further, but I’m glad there’s no injuries out the game.
“Ewan Otoo we just took him off as a precaution. He’ll be fine to train tomorrow. Breeny will rejoin the squad again tomorrow, Thursday at the latest. Apart from Kane, it’s been a decent pre-season for everybody in terms of injury-wise.”
What does that mean regards Chris for Saturday, does he serve a suspension?
“I don’t know. I don’t know the rules for Saturday. What will happen, I’ll need actually to go in and find that out.”
Did the ref say what it was for?
“No. He just said it was a decision he had to make. He’s a decent referee as well. I don’t believe for a second it’s something a ref would want to do in a pre-season friendly unless he had to, so I’ll see it back, I’ll assess it, but for what it means for Saturday, I’m not quite sure if I’m honest.”
