Dunfermline jet off to Bulgaria tomorrow for a warm-weather training camp that will take preparations for the new season up a notch.
The Pars are taking every available player with them to the continent, including the younger members of the squad, with a view to team bonding as well as conditioning work.
Departing on an early-morning flight for Sofia, the East End Park party will spend seven days in the Balkans.
A bounce game against Slavia Sofia has been pencilled in for next week, with plans in place to field two different teams against their Parva Liga opponents.
With the Fifers’ first official pre-season friendly scheduled for a week on Saturday against SPFL newcomers East Kilbride, the trip gives boss Neil Lennon and his backroom staff the opportunity for some intensive fitness sessions.
And assistant-manager Iain Brunskill has hailed the opportunity to take the squad away as Lennon prepares for his first full season in charge of the Championship outfit.
“It’s such an intense period, pre-season,” said Brunskill, who is delighted to be back at Dunfermline after the short-term deal of the spring.
“Everyone likes their own bed, but we can really focus in on them. Not always training twice a day, but lots of recovery as well.
“There’s really good facilities over there and it also gives the guys opportunities to bond when they’re around each other a lot.
“We’ve got a few little activities, which should be quite good, in terms of that side of things.
Brunskill: ‘It’s always a benefit’
“I think it’s always a benefit, and it was something we’d spoken about last season, when we were planning with the people above.
“We said, ‘let’s try and lay some foundations here for a couple of days, and then try and get the guys away, a bit of a change of scenery’.
“We’re lucky that the club are able to facilitate us, in terms of going away.”
After a day of physical testing last Friday, pre-season training kicked off in earnest on Monday.
However, as well as the lung-bursting running drills, Brunskill has revealed the tactical work ahead of the new campaign has also begun early.
“We’ve pushed them quite a bit,” he added. “Obviously there’s a physiological side to it all.
“But, in terms of mentally, we’ve got them straight into the football as quickly as we can.
“We think it’s the best way of starting to build habits, and build how we want to play.
“So, we’re starting to integrate that already into training from day one. They’ve done well, they’ve reacted well.”
‘A totally different situation’ for Pars
Brunskill arrived as Lennon’s right-hand man in March for the final seven games of the season with the possibility of relegation still hanging over the club.
“It was a totally different situation,” he said of last term. “We had to hit the ground running, work with what we had, in terms of players, and also in terms of that stage of the season.
“You can’t really work on the physical side of the game, because there’s not much time. And they’ve had a long, old season – not just physically but mentally as well, with the position the team found themselves in.
“So, it’s nice to be able to start afresh.”
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