Cambuslang Rangers co-boss Billy Campbell has told his side to embrace and enjoy life in the West of Scotland League Premier Division.
The Wee Gers kick off their campaign at home to Beith on Saturday, having won last season’s Conference B title and Campbell is well aware that they will be amongst the relegation favourites.
Campbell says their internal goal is to consolidate in the top flight and take it from there, but he expects a massive challenge.
He said: “Is there pressure for us to go on and be successful in the division?
“Probably not – there is probably more of an expectation that we’ll come straight back down, if I’m being honest.
“That’s one of the areas we need to make sure we’re prepared for.
“We need to make sure we’re up there and competing, make ourselves difficult to beat, and push on to try and get as many points on the board as we can.
“There is a real challenge here, and this is probably at least two divisions up.
“We’re not thinking we’re going up, we’re going to do great.
“We just need to set ourselves up and try to do the best we can.
“Our aim this season is to try and stay in the division, to try and consolidate.
“But the biggest thing for us is to go and embrace it, to turn up and do the best that we can.
“To compete in every area, do our own job.
“If singularly you do your job, collectively we’ll be okay.
“We just need to prepare as best we can, but we want the guys to go and enjoy it.
“It might be a big step, but we’ve got some extremely experienced guys in there who have played a lot of senior games.
“All we want to do is our best, and to make sure we don’t let ourselves down.”
Camby ended their pre-season schedule with a 0-0 draw at Blantyre Vics in midweek, followed by a 2-1 win at Cumbernauld United on Saturday.
“We’ve done all the chopping and changing that we need to do, so we’ve now got ourselves into a
place where we can pick a starting line-up and do the best we can,” said Campbell.
“We feel ready and prepared, we should be there or thereabouts.
“We played very well against Blantyre Vics during the week, and they’re a right good team, very well set up and well drilled.
“But I thought we played very well, created numerous chances, but unfortunately on the night we didn’t manage to take them, which was a wee bit disappointing.
“On Saturday we made six changes to get guys some games, and we managed to finish with a wee win.
“We’re not going to play this week, we were training on Monday and will again on Wednesday night.
“We’ve given everybody ample game-time on the park to allow us to make an informed decision on selection for Saturday.”
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