News Archive

23 July 2010
FIT AGAIN CAFF LOOKING TO MAKE AN IMPACT

Saints travel to Berwick Rangers tonight for the third in their run of friendly matches against Scottish Football League opposition.

The Shielfield Park side are one of two SFL clubs who received byes in the first round of the Challenge Cup which kicks off tomorrow and Manager Derek McInnes is looking for his side to add to the 3-1 win over Forfar and 5-1 success at Arbroath ahead of Monday’s departure to Northern Ireland.

One player hoping to be involved tonight is defender Stuart McCaffrey who is looking to be put last season’s injury frustration behind him.

Stuart played the first half of the match at Gayfield on Wednesday and afterwards told the Saints Official Website: “I enjoyed the 45 minutes very much and if anything would have liked to have got a bit longer. But it was a start and hopefully I can get plenty more match action in the pre-season programme.”

Stuart missed much of last season due to injury but hopes to be back on track now and is feeling ready to challenge for one of the hotly contested centre-half berths.

“I managed to train with the boys in the final two weeks of last season. It was fairly low key by that time which suited me and it was good mentally to be back training.

“Over the summer months I have done a lot of work with our fitness coach Craig Flannigan. I really haven’t stopped and I can’t think of a season when I have come back any fitter than I feel at the moment. I just want more game time now.”

Stuart says the morale amongst the players is good and is looking for tonight’s match at Shielfield Park to be another important stage in the preparations.

“We’ve done a lot of hard work on the training ground already and we need to translate that onto the pitch now. The wins at Station Park and Gayfield have been good and we want to keep that momentum going. You don’t want sticky results at this stage of the season so we will be looking to win down at Berwick ahead of the trip to Ireland.”

Tonight’s match kicks-off at 7.30pm