Manager says Bonar Bridge are on course for improvement after better season
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MANAGER Bobby Breen says he is pleased with how Bonar Bridge have turned into a competitive team in the North Caledonian League in his first season in charge.
Having taken over as manager at the start of the campaign, he inherited a side that earned a reputation as whipping boys last season, finishing bottom of the table losing 23 of their 24 matches and conceded 143 goals.
This season, they have proven to be a much tougher prospect. Although second bottom of the table, results have been closer contests than last season.
Bonar Bridge are in 11th place in the 12-team North Caledonian League.
They are three points ahead of Thurso with six games remaining in the campaign.
Tomorrow they host Halkirk United at Migdale in a double header against the Anglers before heading to Morrison Park next weekend.
Breen says he is pleased with the signs of progress made at Bonar Bridge. Although results still haven’t been great, he says the club is moving forward in the right direction.
“The improvement we have seen this season has been really good,” said Breen.
“A lot of results still haven’t been great, but last season the club were losing by 8-0 and 9-0. This season we are only losing matches by 3-1 or 3-2.
“We have got the team to be competitive again.
“There have been players that we have signed to the club and have a mix of old and young players.
“We didn’t have much of a pre-season, due to the season before being so bad, winning only one out of 24 and most of the boys were playing summer league which was more enjoyable for them at the time.
“The pre-season is where you build your team for the season and you can work out your tactics. You can’t do that when the season is already half way through.
“We are looking to get a much better pre-season for next season. We have a lot of new players and players who have come back to the club. When we have a full team, I am confident we can compete against anyone in the league.”
Breen says the biggest problem he has faced is not having his strongest team available for any match during this campaign.
But he will be looking to change that for next season.
He said: “It is a good squad, but there are players away for weeks due to work commitments.
“There are also players at university who come up when they can. That’s been difficult as we have never had our strongest team at one time. That will change next season, we need to sign a couple of more players and then we will have strength in every position. There are a lot of young players around the fringe of the squad.
“Sometimes we don’t get the right results because we are weaker in some places. We will get through that and get players more experience. Once we get our full strength squad that can play, it’ll be good.”
