Cove Rangers boss Paul Hartley is relieved his side have come through pre-season with no serious injuries.
After a significant period of more than six months without games, there were fears of how players would hold up being thrown back into competitive action.
Cove played their fourth pre-season game on Tuesday night against Fraserburgh, winning 3-0, after coming through two games against Dundee and one against Brechin City.
The only real concern they have had so far is Fraser Fyvie, who picked up a knee injury in the game at Dens Park last weekend and looks to be out for a couple of weeks. Rory McAllister sat out the Broch game as a precaution, after coming off against Dundee with hamstring trouble, while Seb Ross is due back in training after a knock.
Their League One campaign starts a fortnight tomorrow at home to East Fife, with their Betfred Cup opener against Hibernian coming a week earlier on October 10..
Hartley said: “We’ve always looked at the East Fife game as the main one for us. The Betfred is great but we’ve looked at the seven games before that to get us up to speed.
“You’re going to face that throughout the season. Boys have not played a lot of football for a period of time, so you just try and get through pre-season without any injuries.
“We’ve been OK so far, with just a few niggles and knocks, so long may that continue.”
The League Two champions play their final pre-season friendly tomorrow at home to Banks o’Dee, in which the players will receive their League Two winners’ medals and the trophy prior to the game.
With the manner in which last season ended – an SPFL vote of all 42 clubs – Cove had not picked up their silverware earned during a memorable first campaign as a Scottish league club.
Hartley added: “Obviously we can’t celebrate and we’ve not been able to celebrate but hopefully in due course we can, because the players deserve it. They were fantastic last season, so they’ll get their medals which they deserve.”