Brown relishing Gretna challenge as pre-season looms

Jun 15 2012 by Andrew Burns, Dumfries Standard Friday

NEW Gretna 2008 boss Kenny Brown hopes that bringing his pre-season preparations forward will get his management career off to a flying start.

Brown took over last month from Stuart Rome and has been working hard to get a squad ready for next season’s East of Scotland Premier League campaign.

They kick off pre-season training this weekend and already have a host of friendlies arranged, including a visit of Allan Johnston’s Queen of the South to Raydale Park on July 14.

Brown said: “We start back training on Saturday and I have just under 20 names confirmed.

“I wanted to get things organised very early so that we are ahead of the game going into our friendlies. By doing it this way I can have a few weeks with the group of players and then a few decent friendly games to test things out.

“Delays are not uncommon for clubs in trying to build squads and I wanted to avoid that.”

Brown, who was previously assistant manager at Raydale, was quickly appointed to the top role following Rome’s announcement that he was stepping down.

Inundated

The new gaffer has been hard at work in trying to secure the right players and he revealed that the club has been “inundated” with interest in joining up at Raydale.

He said: “We have been very busy in recent weeks but we are on the right track.

“This has involved talking to players, some who are staying and some who are leaving, and dealing with letters and interested players.

“We have actually been inundated with players who want to come and join Gretna and that is very encouraging.”

Gretna’s first pre-season game has been scheduled for Saturday, July 7, with a further three games planned for each Saturday afterwards.

Their East of Scotland league campaign begins on August 4, with fixtures yet to be confirmed.