Wednesday 5th August 2015
SKIPPER Darren Barr is set to be fit for the start of Dumbarton’s 2015-16 Ladbrokes SPFL Championship journey on Saturday, manager Stevie Aitken has confirmed.
The defender was substituted during extra time in Saturday’s League Cup first round defeat at East Fife, being replaced by his predecessor as captain, Andy Graham.
But the gaffer said that the change was purely to give Darren a rest after an intense pre-season period.
Stevie said: “Darren had a bit of tiredness about him from having played in every pre-season game, due to the situation with Andy’s injury.
“We didn’t have a chance to blend him in, and having not missed a training session either, it was tiredness more than anything that saw him substituted.
“We didn’t let him train last night but we expect him to train tomorrow, and all being well, to be ready for the game on Saturday.”
Stevie also oversaw an impressive training session from his players last night as they aim for a positive result to start their league campaign.
He added: “The response to Saturday was what I thought it would be. We have professional players in the squad and they were disappointed with how the weekend went.
“We only had ourselves to blame on Saturday as we had enough chances, and enough penalties, to win, but the players worked really hard last night.”
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© Andy Galloway. This article is copyright of the author and may not be reproduced in any form without written permission.