East Stirlingshire followed the Scotland squad's lead and spent the weekend at Mar Hall for training purposes. The Third Division side finished bottom of the pile in the SFL last season and hope that the bonding session at the national side's usual training base will pay off in the new season. The Shire players spent a day training at the five star hotel that Scotland manager Gordon Strachan and his players use ahead of international fixtures. Head coach John Coughlin has to meld a number of new recruits and the remaining members from last season into a squad for 2013-14.Coughlin said: "It is not often Third Division players can say that they have been treated like a Scotland squad but our guys got a taste of that on Saturday. We were due to be spending a few days at Stirling University however that fell through. My assistant manager Matt Kerr got in touch with a couple of people he knows and that got us into Mar Hall at a very decent rate. We have a new look squad and it was great that they were all together for the first time in such top class surroundings. The players worked hard on Saturday morning and they played golf in the afternoon before enjoying a dinner at Mar Hall."
Source: ScottishFitba
Source: FOOTYMAD
