St Andrews United: Boss Robbie Raeside trains with his stars on the beach in howling gale and torrential rain

“I had to take the boys to the beach because the game got postponed an hour and a half before kick-off,” Raeside said.

"I couldn’t get an astroturf pitch at that stage so it was old school, down to the beach.

"I checked, the tide was going out and we were on the sand. We managed to do a bit with the ball and a bit of running and it was not pleasant at all.

"It wasn’t on sand dunes or anything. They were on the wet, hard sand which is half decent. When the ground’s frosty, muddy or waterlogged then it’s the only option you’ve got.

"I’ve played with teams up and down the east coast of Scotland so I’ve been to the beach with the lot of them, Dundee, Raith, Peterhead, Arbroath. There were probably less astroturfs about in my day right enough.

"It wasn’t one of these nice cold, crisp days at the beach. It was howling a gale, freezing cold and then the rain came on horizontal right into our faces and it was horrible.

"It was on the same area as the scene from Chariots of Fire but I wouldn’t say it was as pleasant as the film makes it look!

"The boys were all in the huff with me and hardly speaking to me when we got back to the ground.

"I could tell they weren’t happy, but listen, it needed done. They needed a wee blow out because the training had been frosted off on the Wednesday and I couldn’t send them away after doing nothing again.

"It’s been difficult. We’ve actually had to contend with waterlogging, snow and frost with games in training recently. It’s been quite unbelievable.

“It’s been a patchy couple of weeks so it was a great three points against Whitehill Welfare – a 1-0 home East of Scotland League first division win on December 16 – considering how difficult it’s been to train and have games recently."

United are away to Heriot-Watt University in the league this Saturday with kick-off at 2pm.