Jeanfield Swifts return to action with pre-season friendly win against Spartans

Jeanfield Swifts manager Ross Gunnion expressed his delight after watching his side return to action for the first time in six months.

And an impressive 3-1 friendly victory away at Lowland League Spartans has certainly whetted the appetite for the upcoming season.

Swifts last outing was a Scottish Cup tie with Kelty Hearts on Boxing Day before COVID-19 brought games to a halt. Despite the lengthy lay-off from matches, the Perth men did not take long to get back up to full speed in the capital on Saturday.

An own goal had Swifts ahead and, while Spartans retaliated early in the second half, Chris Dodd and Mark Smith secured the win late on.

“Getting back to playing football has been brilliant - albeit a friendly - and everybody was just delighted,” said Gunnion. "It was a good result for us but more important was the performance.

“It was our first game and you would be hard pushed to tell who was the Lowland League team and the East of Scotland League team.

“We went in with a reasonably lean squad but from start to finish we were really good. The margin could have been bigger.

“We had young goalkeeper Sean Dalton and there was Rannoch Ramsay who came up from our under-20s. He looked fantastic.”

Swifts are preparing for the scheduled July 17 East of Scotland League Premier Division start.

“When we got back training we did testing in terms of fitness,” Gunnion added. “Not one was what you would class as ‘out of shape’.

“That makes it a lot easier for the coaches when you know the players have a base level of fitness. You can work with the ball more.

“We’ve kept pre-season similar to last year in terms of intensity and warm-up games. The players actually look slightly better than they did at this stage last year. Fingers crossed we keep improving.

“We’re going to have another four friendlies and will try to get the players used to playing Saturday and midweek.

“When the season starts I fully expect the league will take the opportunity to play midweek early to get as many games played as possible. We’ll make sure we have plenty of minutes under our belt.

“We’ve kept the same core as last year and got all the players signed up early doors. We’re in a good position.”