Glenrothes FC co-manager John Martin hoping to improve on 'frustrating' 2023-24 league campaign

Martin – whose team’s final two pre-season friendlies saw them at home to Balgonie Scotia last Tuesday night before at Pumpherston last Saturday – takes Glens into their first Premier Division fixture of 2024-25 at Haddington Athletic this Saturday, kick-off 2.30pm.

He told the Glenrothes Gazette: "I'm definitely ambitious for the season. We're not coming into the league just to be battling away down at the bottom.

"Last season was more frustrating than nerve-racking. With the points deduction, we just felt everything was against us.

"But when you're down the bottom, everything is against you.

"We just had to keep the guys going and try to stay in the league. Waiting on other teams' games to see if you're still in the league isn't a good feeling when you've already done the hard work.

"You've got to aim as high as you can and try and compete.

"There isn't any point in coming into a league and just staying in it.

"Yes, we've not got the budget of other teams in the league, but we're as ambitious as other teams so we'll definitely be aiming towards the top end of the table and pushing to try and see if we can get our hands on any silverware in the cups.”

On this weekend’s league opener, Martin added: "Haddington are a tough team to play. We got beaten by them last season but they were tight games, I wouldn't say they were far in front of us in terms of quality or ability.

"We'll be up for it. We'll have the boys ready to go and hopefully the new signings perform and we can get the result we're looking for.

"I would say the current squad has more experience than a year ago. If you look at the last few years we've been not far away.

"We thought bringing experienced boys in could maybe help see out a game that we are winning with five or 10 minutes to go instead of losing late goals."