Black's battle to find Airdrie training ground

Jul 2 2008 by Colin Paterson, Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser

KENNY BLACK reckons a lack of decent training facilities could put the brakes on Airdrie United’s progress.

The New Broomfield boss admits he is concerned with the limited options available to him when deciding where to put his players through their paces.

The Diamonds will be based at Strathclyde Country Park for the next few weeks but have nothing permanent fixed up beyond then.

Black is hoping an outside individual or organisation will come forward and help the club out – but he is loathe to move training sessions out of the North Lanarkshire area to the likes of Glasgow.

He said: “Our training situation is a major concern for me and I think we need help from someone.

“We are based here for the next few weeks and that will buy us a bit of time to see if something else will come up.

“We are still actively looking, not just for a surface but for a facility where the boys can get changed and basically just walk out to the ground.

“If we can get something fixed up it would be great but it is very, very difficult at the moment.

“I think this could hold the club’s progress back. If you are asking players to improve their skills and technical ability, then you need to give them the facilities.

“I have spoken at length about this and I think it is something we got away with last season.

“The pitches across from our stadium are just not in a good enough condition. You can get away with it the odd day here and there but we need better.

“We trained at Bellshill juniors’ ground for a few weeks last season and that was ideal.

“I also don’t want to be moving Airdrie away out to Glasgow as we have enough players travelling as it is.”

The squad began pre-season training last Thursday with Black currently running his eye over a number of trialists.

There has been no further movement on the signings front following the addition of Paul Di Giacomo, with the manager insisting he will take his time before adding to his pool.

Black added: “The first few days have gone okay and the players are getting stronger and know the importance of getting themselves in good condition.

“Two or three of the trialists have done well in the running but we won’t know what they are capable of until we bring the ball out for a significant length of time.

“When the pre-season friendlies get started I think we will have a better idea as to what we are looking for.

“I know people might be getting impatient for signings but I’m not going to be.

“If this was the final week before the start of the season, and I only had 13 players, then I’d be worried.”

THIS week’s Airdrie United lottery numbers are as follows: £4000 rollover draw – 3, 13 and 19; £600 draw – 2, 12 and 13.