Website designed and maintained by Website4u What are your thoughts for the forthcoming season? First and foremost I am really looking forward to it. It's good to be back for pre- season so we can start preparing for the coming season. We have added Paul Riley and Jimmy Wight to our Management Team which can only help improve the quality and standard demanded of the players and hopefully this, along with our new signings, will help us to have a successful season in both the league and cup competitions. What do you think about the teams in our League Cup section? It's obviously nice to get Bonnyrigg again this year as they are an excellent side and there is also the local rivalry between the teams. However, it is also nice to play against teams that Craig and I have not faced since we became co-managers of Penicuik. It is going to be a difficult section to progress from.   How will you approach the League Cup? We will be trying our best to win it. We know that it will be very difficult but we know our players well, so there will not be the wholesale changes that we adopted for the League Cup last season. We will pick the team we consider to be best suited to beat our opponents. It is up to the players to prove to us that they should be in our starting 11. How did you arrange to get Rangers and Hearts for friendly matches? Credit for the Rangers game must go to the Penicuik Athletic Committee. It is a massive bonus for everyone connected with the club to be facing Rangers, and it is a game that we are all looking forward to. Although we have played Hearts more often, the game is no less special. Our relationship with Hearts has been enhanced with the very successful loan deal of Brad McKay, who blossomed in his season at Penicuik. He helped us massively and goes back to Hearts a better player. Penicuik, Hearts and Brad all benefited from the experience. How do you think we will do against them? I hope we can do well but we are playing quality opponents and we will need to be at our best or we could be in for two very uncomfortable matches. However, we have good players and I hope they go out and show what they are capable of. Which players been signed again from last season? We have re-signed all the players from last season with the exception of Mark Robertson who has been retained until he is fit again. We can now concentrate on the season ahead. What new signings have been made? So far we have signed Douglas Cunnison from Arniston Rangers and local lad Dean Knight from Tynecastle. Both will be good additions to our current squad of players and we hope they can help the rest of the players make Penicuik Athletic a successful club to play for. Are there any other potential signings in the offing? Yes. We have a few potential signings and Craig is working hard to ensure they come to Penicuik. However, I cannot comment on who they are at this time for obvious reasons. However, the quality of players in mind can only enhance the strength of squad we now have at the club. What likelihood is there of getting any Hearts youngsters on loan this season? At this time I would say it is unlikely but we would never dismiss it if it became an option. Finally, what are our prospects of gaining promotion this season? That's a very difficult question to answer. We want to progress and move the club forward. Promotion would be an obvious progression and it must be what we aim for but the league will be particularly strong this season and we will need to be at our best, week in week out, if we are to have any chance of being in the running for promotion. Welcome to the new season and Bryan’s pre-season interview