St Andrews United: Boss Robbie Raeside calls for East of Scotland League schedule change due to 'far wetter' weather in recent years

"Last weekend was a disaster because all the players were in their houses ready to leave at 10.30am on Saturday,” Raeside told the Herald and Citizen.

“Selfishly, I would rather we had got there and then at least I could have put the players through their paces somewhere.

"We have a very spread out squad so it’s difficult to pull them together at that stage on a Saturday. They were given the day off on condition that they do a run themselves on the Sunday, Monday or Tuesday.

“I do think that we’re going to have to do something to the fixture schedule. Because I’ve noticed a difference in the last 10 years, there’s no doubt. It’s far wetter, there are far more games getting postponed than I have ever known.

"Whether we maybe extended the season into June a wee bit instead of us always rushing, that could work.

"But it’s hard to judge. The tricky question in Scotland if you’re planning to have a winter break is: ‘Which weeks would you have off?’

"You can have dodgy weather months whenever. We’ve had games waterlogged in October, that’s the really difficult thing.

"I’m not up on my knowledge of climate change. I’m trying to get players’ habits changed and get them out running over Christmas time!”

When asked if East of Scotland League clubs could do something similar to their Scottish Premiership counterparts by having three weeks off around the Christmas/New Year period, Raeside said: “Possibly. I like football at that time of year but it’s certainly something to consider, it’s a difficult one.

"Every winter there is getting more and more of a case for teams to have a 3G pitch or a 4G pitch. But I’m not a fan of them, I’d rather watch games on grass.”

Saints, fourth in the table with 30 points from 13 fixtures, resume their league campaign at eighth-placed Preston Athletic this Saturday with kick-off at 2.30pm.

"I think this is our most difficult game of the season,” Raeside said. “We’ve not had a game for three weeks which has been difficult and Preston Athletic were a stuffy team the last time we played them (a 2-1 home Saints league win on November 4).

"It was a bit of brilliance by Lewis Sawers that won us that game.

"So it will be all hads to the pump without a doubt. It’s going to need a massive effort from everybody.

"We need big focus, effort and concentration on Saturday.

"Their manager has assured me that their pitch is in great nick, they’re training on it and the game will definitely be on.

"Seemingly it’s a good pitch down there which is great news. We need the game to be on.

"It’s exciting and we’re glad to get a game in. We’re looking forward to it but we know it’s going to be a really difficult and competitive league.

"On their day anybody can take points from anybody. Hopefully we get the three points on Saturday.”

Saints have a full squad available for the match.

"We have nobody unavailable which is good because we did have a couple of doubts for the Heriot-Watt game – Ryan Roche and Cammy Lawson – but they’re now both fit,” Raeside added.

"We have good competition for places in a squad of 18 senior players – 16 outfield players and two goalkeepers. We also have a couple of under-20 guys we can play.”