Work ethic and fitness are the normal demands for any Paul Hartley team.
But the extended lay-off of football this year means those facets are going to be stressed more keenly during Cove Rangers’ pre-season preparations.
Players returned to training two days ago, ending a five-month break without playing the game they have all become accustomed to.
In a normal year, the break between the end of one season and the start of pre-season training may be four to six weeks, particularly with the Betfred Cup usually starting in July.
However, the Covid-19 pandemic forced Scottish football, particularly at a lower level, into an extended hibernation, with part-time clubs only now starting to see the light.
It means a premium will be put on hard work when players are back in group training. There is some making up for lost time to be done.
“It’s like somebody having a long-term injury and then you’re coming back. It feels like that,” said Hartley.
“The last time we saw the players was March; that’s a long time to be out, so we’ve got to make sure when we come back we do everything right. There’ll be a lot of rustiness.
“I’m sure the lads have kept ticking over, but doing individual stuff is different, so it’ll take a wee bit of time to get used to things again.
“We’ll be careful with injuries, but we’ve got to work hard in pre-season. It’ll be a tough pre-season for the lads who haven’t worked under me before. We’ve got to be prepared as we can be mentally and physically.
“I looked at eight weeks because of the first league game. We felt we needed eight weeks because six was not as much time for us. Eight weeks gives us a lot of scope to work with and the Betfred Cup will be our first competitive games.
“We’ll try to arrange a couple of games in between that, but we don’t know how difficult that’s going to be for clubs.
“We’ll take it a day at a time.”
Cove start their competitive season in the Betfred Cup on October 6, before opening their League One campaign against East Fife at the Balmoral Stadium on October 17.
It has been a long wait for Hartley, who – alongside his playing staff – was furloughed by the club during the shutdown. Hartley returned to work on August 10 and time away from the game, as it did while he did not have a club, has made him appreciate football even more.
“It’s just to enjoy it again. You’ll appreciate the game a lot more, having not had it,” he said.
“It’s been strange watching it without a crowd and hopefully by the time we come back, we do have some fans back in the ground. That’ll be up to the Scottish Government.
“Just being back on the training pitch, I don’t think we should take the game for granted any more.”