Bollan believes visit to Forfar could be just the tonic for his toiling players

Oct 8 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

GARY BOLLAN expects to have a full dressing room of players to choose from this weekend for the trip to Forfar.

He admits there are a handful of men in the side carrying knocks but he expects everyone to be fit while defender Cammy Macdonald will also come back into contention following suspension.

He said: “We have a few bumps and bruises in the dressing room at the moment but we hope to have everyone fit and available for Saturday. Andy Halliday should be back in contention after missing the East Stirling game while Cammy Macdonald is also back from suspension.”

Bollan is hoping for a reaction from his Third Division title hopefuls after they were beaten 3-1 by East Stirling last week.

The Lions boss ran the rule over some of his young hopefuls and fringe stars on Friday during a bounce match against a Rangers youth squad and he admits the performance has given him some food for thought ahead of the trip to Station Park.

Bollan continued: “As we had the weekend off we had a game at Murray Park against a Rangers XI where we did very well.

“We won 3-0 and had a few excellent performances.

“One was from Kyle Jacobs who has been on the fringes of the first team this season and has already come off the bench a couple of times.

“His performance against a decent Rangers side showed me his ready for the first team.

“I was disappointed with how we played against East Stirling especially after I thought we started really well in the first 10 minutes.

“I haven’t been able to put my finger on what went wrong after that as we seemed to fall out of the game.

“After the break we created a few chances but towards the end we conceded again.

“The three goals we conceded were disappointing goals to lose as they came from crosses which should be avoided.

“We need our fullbacks to stop the crosses coming in but when they do come in we need our centre-half's to clear their lines. We did reshuffle our pack for the game and that may not have helped but it is no excuse for our result.

“Next we go to Forfar which won’t be an easy game. Dick Campbell is a guy who always has his side well organised and difficult to break down so we know what to expect.”