By Graeme Dey

DUNFERMLINE HAVE negotiated the opening week of pre-season training with barely a scratch—an unheard of situation at a club which year on year has been beset by injury problems in the lead-up to and throughout campaigns.

And last night boss Jim McIntyre revealed the current rude health of his squad hasn’t been arrived at by accident.

“We’ve really structured pre-season,” disclosed McIntyre, whose charges head for a training camp in Austria first thing this morning.

“We sat down in advance and discussed everything in detail.

“It wasn’t just a case of saying ‘Right, we’ll give them this running exercise and that one.’

“It was about formulating a gradual build-up so that players would get stronger every day.

“The days of busting players from the start have gone.

“Players come back fitter nowadays so it’s just about getting them up to peak condition.

“Touch wood, things have gone well so far. The only problem has been Stephen Glass who has a tight calf. And he’ll be back training Saturday morning.”

With Sol Bamba on Olympic duty, Greg Ross still doing rehab following knee surgery and Steven Bell recovering from a cartilage op, the Pars have had to include four youngsters plus on-trial keeper Calum Reidford in a 19-man squad for Austria.

“The pool does have a very lean look about it,” the Pars boss admitted.

“But that’s the climate we have to operate in.

“We didn’t go back up to the SPL last season so we couldn’t sustain the Premier League wage bill we had.

“And it fell to yours truly to address that.

“We’ve let some good players go and when we tried to keep a couple on vastly-reduced money they chose to move on, which I totally understand.

“The reality is that by the time we add a few new faces, we’ll be running with a squad of just 22 next season.

“But hopefully the way we train them and the shape we’ve got them in ensures we don’t pick up as many injuries as previously.

“It’s been horrendous here the injury situation.

“A lot of times players have just broken down because of their age or their bodies, not because of the training.

“But if we can reduce the risk of injury then we should do so.

“That’s why I’ve brought Robert Keilty, who really knows his stuff, in as fitness coach.

“Robert is with us full time for pre-season and thereafter will be coming in three days a week.

“It’s been good so far and the ice baths after every session to help recovery look to be working.”

The summer has seen only Bell, Graeme Holmes and Austin McCann arrive at the club.

Contrast that with the mass exodus since McIntyre took over at the turn of the year.

Of the pool that former boss Stephen Kenny took to La Manga for pre-season last summer, Scott Morrison, Mark Burchill, Stephen Simmons, Phil McGuire, Roddy MacKenzie, Owen Morrison, Darren Young, Jim Hamilton, Bobby Ryan, Tam McManus, Jamie Harris, Stevie Crawford and Sean Murdoch have all departed, as has Aaron Labonte.

For McIntyre, with the budget he has at his disposal, the emphasis is now on quality rather than quantity.

And he remains determined not to get sucked into making signings just to furnish him with options.

“I’m not going to sign players for the sake of it, no chance,” he said.

“I’ve approached several people and made them offers. But the money they were looking for we just couldn’t look at.

“I’m not going down the road, though, of making up the numbers.

“I’m prepared to wait in order to get the standard of player we need.

“We are looking for a couple of strikers and someone wide right. But they need to be the right kind.”