Assistant manager Gav Skelton confirmed that the week just gone had been put to good use with the players worked hard between recovery sessions as the preparations for the home game against Newport continue.
Having just pushed them hard up at Gretna, he said: “I’m smiling because we’ve just put them through a really tough session.
“They did a fair bit of running, tough work, and obviously it was done with smiles on faces and absolutely no complaints at all!
“It’s good when you’re retired, not playing any more, so you can stand back and encourage and tell them to get on with it rather than have to be involved.
“This was a very physical day [Thursday], they’ll get a couple of days off, and that’s good for them both physically and mentally. We’ve been in pretty much constantly since June, and that goes through until May, so you definitely need to plan in down time as well, if the opportunity to do that crops up.”
With no game at the weekend it was a case of making best use of the time.
“If there’s nothing you can do about it - like us not having a game isn’t something we can control - we just have to get on with it.
“It gives us a chance to try to get people fitter, particularly those who haven’t been getting 90 minutes regularly.
“When you have the busy periods of games it’s good for players who are out there, but you don’t quite get the sessions you want for the other players, because those who were involved need to rest and recover.
“It can be hard to keep on top of their fitness, so they’ve had a really good week. The lads who played on Sunday have had a recovery period, but they’ve worked hard as well over the last few days.
“It’s different when there’s a game called off because you’ve been preparing all week, trying to that peak for the Saturday, whereas we knew there was no game this time.
“Hopefully on Monday they’re in a good place mentally and we’ll be into the football stuff and an exciting six-week period with lots of games to look forward to.”