Vale of Leithen boss Michael Wilson boots out players who missed training in recent weeks

Vale of Leithen manager Michael Wilson has hit out at the “scatty” players who he says let the club down in recent weeks by not turning up for training.

Wilson’s men – with a severely reduced squad due to these players being released, as well as injuries and holiday commitments to others still at the club – lost 3-0 at Dundonald Bluebell in Saturday’s East of Scotland Premier Division match.

“We only had 12 players,” Wilson told The Southern Reporter. “The issue is Dundonald brought on four subs and the fresh legs just changed the game.

"I’ve been let down by a lot of players over the last few weeks. Boys who have given me a bit of chat, saying: ‘We’re in 100 per cent’ and then they’ve been really scatty, turning up at training one week then not there the next.

Michael Wilson is rebuilding squad. Picture: Thomas Brown

"I don’t like people like that. The club have had things like that going on for the past five years and we cannot afford that happening.

“I’ve just told them that I would rather have less players than these players at all because it’s just a poison. That’s why at the moment I think we’ve got 13 players that are fit, plus boys on holiday and boys that are injured.

"So I am trying to bring in players to supplement the boys that we’ve got just now. We need a total rebuild, not just the squad but the club as a whole. There’s a mentality that we need to get out of the club.

"I think these boys (the ones missing training) were sort of bringing down that mentality and bringing it back to where it was last year and nobody’s interested in that any more.

"We’ve got a core group of boys who are really good boys who just want to play football and they were being let down by these players and it’s not fair. Other managers put up with it but I don’t. You are either all in or you’re not in.

"If we had a full squad on Saturday we could have won that game. It was 0-0 after 65 minutes before they scored their three goals. We were in control, playing really well but then they brought on fresh legs and we had tired minds, not picking up runners and it killed us.”

Vale, bottom of the league with no points from four games, have a home Scottish Cup first preliminary round tie against Dunbar United this Saturday.

"We will have a full squad of 16 for that,” Wilson said. “I’m working on trying to get a couple of new boys in and there are a couple of boys back from holiday.

"I knew this job wasn’t going to be an overnight fix. The committee are backing me.”