Bairns boss David McCracken pleased as Falkirk players report for duty in pre-season 2020-21

Falkirk players returned for pre-season training on Monday – but it was a different experience to the usual resumption and fitness work.

New procedures for coronavirus prevention were in place at The Falkirk Stadium for the first-team squad reporting for duty and for Lee Miller and David McCracken’s first pre-season session in management.

The Bairns, though, performed well according to the co-manager McCracken, whose tasks included sanitising equipment during the session while Lee Miller took an active part, and both addressed the squad spread around the stand, not in the dressing room, at the ground.

McCracken told The Falkirk Herald: “It’s been good to get the boys back in and it looks from the outset like a fairly normal session, full contact and all the boys training together.

“It’s everything round about it that we have to follow, all the protocols and the checks and the social distancing when they’re not training that is the difference.

“Our meetings are in the open, in the stand rather than a personal meeting in a room or changing room, altogether. But it’s more of a loud conversation rather than bawling at them for something!

“The boys are looking pretty good, and some of the new signings are looking great. It’s good and they’re showing up well for being out of consistent training for the past five months. But it’s good to be back.”

Players, including new signings Blair Alston, Aidan Keena, Scott Mercer and Blair Sneddon, will attend again today (Thursday) for fitness testing, postponed from Tuesday’s planned session when the storm threw the physical tests into chaos.

McCracken added: “The best quality to have at the minute is the ability to adapt.

“This is a completely different pre-season to any Lee or I have experienced as a player, but it’s different for us anyway in a managerial capacity, so we are having to adapt, but just to very different and changing circumstances.

“We had prepared for a return this week but with social distancing so it is good to be able to get some contact work. On Tuesday we had everything planned for fitness tests and then, bang, a storm, so we quickly re-adjusted and then it was a case of re-jigging things. We got a good amount of work into the boys and included the ball with that as well.”

See Michael Gillen’s day one gallery - click here.

By today the entrance procedure for the squad will be familiar. Players must report online via a morning questionnaire detailing several questions and then pass a temperature check on entry to the ground – via the South Stand to minimise contact with the wider public.

The players must also report for duty changed and ready for practise – no changing facilities are available, nor post-session food and meetings take place in the socially distant stand where only certain seats are free to be used.

Contact is permitted during the exercises – but otherwise social distancing must be in place on the pitch with face coverings used too.

Equipment is also sanitised before and after the sessions and anything handled during the training must also be frequently cleaned too.

It’s the new normal, but a big change from the usual first get-togethers of a new season, and a lot later too.

“Things like that are very different but if that is what is required for us to get to training then, so be it, we’ll do that,” added McCracken.

The Bairns do not, however, have to currently organise regular and costly covid-19 testing for the players. Under the current guidelines testing is not required to participate in training, but as with everything in the current climate, that’s subject to change in line with government protocols.