Bollan puts success down to boost in fitness

Nov 19 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

GARY BOLLAN reckons the international break in September has helped Livingston lay the foundations for their current title challenge.

The turmoil which engulfed the club in the summer under former owner Angelo Massone meant the players had no proper pre-season training.

Their early-season form suffered as a result but Bollan revealed he and assistants Brian Welsh and Scott Paterson put the players through a mini pre-season during the international break and now the players and the club are reaping the rewards.

“When Brian and I first came in the lads hadn’t had a proper pre-season so they weren’t fit,” admitted Bollan.

“So we had a mini pre-season during the international break when Scotland played Macedonia and Holland.

“We managed to get the boys fit during that break and we’re now seeing the benefits of that on the pitch.

“In some of the early games like at Berwick and Albion Rovers we were the full-time side but we weren’t getting on top of teams during the games and with us being full-time you’d expect our fitness to show in the latter stages of games but at that time of the season it wasn’t.

“We felt we needed to catch up on fitness which we did in the break and we’re getting the benefit of that now.”

Livingston are back at Hampden this weekend, just a few weeks after a win on Scottish Cup duty there, and Bollan would love a repeat performance and result.

He said: “A similar performance to the last time we were at Hampden would be nice but we’ve had those in recent weeks as we’ve been playing quite well.

“We hope to keep our momentum going and the boys are all up for the challenge.

“It was a bonus we didn’t lose top spot in the table despite not playing at the weekend but there are teams right behind us waiting for us to slip up so we have to keep on top of our game.

“It was a bit disappointing we didn’t play last weekend but we did everything we could to get the game on and it was the referee who decided the pitch wasn’t playable.

“It was probably the right call as more rain came down at 1pm which soaked the park even more.”

Scouts from clubs on both sides of the border have been showing more than a passing interest in Livi kid Andy Halliday and Bollan admits he doesn’t want to lose him.

He added: “It is important for us to tie our young players down to longer-term deals and the young kids coming through are the way forward for this club.

“Obviously we’d like to keep Andy here and we’ve all heard the rumours about him being watched, which is good for him and the club.

“But he is still very young to stay here for as long as he wants but at the end of the day if an acceptable offer comes in for him then the club may accept it as they have to look after themselves as well.

“One thing we don’t want is to bring through all our young players, play them for a couple of games and then lose them to bigger clubs. I don’t want them all disappearing.”