James McPake spoke to the media ahead of this Friday’s Ladbrokes Championship opener against Dunfermline.
It will be the manager’s first league match in charge since he was appointed as permanent boss in the summer, he said, “This is what it is all about, this is what I have been looking forward to. The cups are a bonus, a bonus that we want to take very seriously and go as far as we can but ultimately everything this season at this club is geared towards a good league campaign.”
“It starts on Friday night and I can’t wait to get down there. Again it’s that wee feeling around the competitive stuff. I’ve not had a lot of it as a manager, the training is good but it’s the games I’m looking forward to”
The club were relegated last season and a lot of work has gone into bringing a freshness to the club ahead of the new season. A number of new signings and staff have come in and after winning the Betfred Cup group the focus is now turns to league business. The manager said of last season, “We had to get over that quickly or it would have been still hanging around. There needed to be a freshness and there is. New players have come in and players have left and there seems to be a buzz about the place but that comes with winning games.”
“The place is feeling good, it’s back to enjoying coming into work again but the week is dictated by the Saturday, is the performance good? is the result good? That all comes down to Friday this time. We want this feeling again next week on the back of a good performance and result.”
Team news ahead of Friday’s match, “Craig Curran did a bit of work today but he is still well off. Jamie Ness trained today, delighted to have him back, really important player for the club so I’m delighted to have him back training.”
On the transfer front, he added Danny Johnson last week and explained he is still looking to add more, “We are still looking to strength, I still believe we are a bit light in a couple of positions and there is a lot of work going on in the background to make sure we get this right. We still have a bit of time but I believe we are still a few short.”
One player who the manager has expressed an interest in publicly is Stevie May, James said of his interest, “He’s still on the radar, there has been no change since last week, I’m not sure if there has been with any other club regarding him but he’s still one that is on the list.”
Subscribers can watch the full pre-match press conference with James McPake and Andrew Nelson now on DeeTV – click here
