Disneyland trip recharged Doyle’s batteries
Michael Doyle believes a weekend off has given the Morton squad an opportunity to recharge their batteries for the business end of the season.
The Ton were inactive last Saturday after their Ladbrokes Championship fixture away at Hibernian was postponed due to the Edinburgh outfit’s participation in the last eight of the Scottish Cup.
Defender Doyle took advantage of the rare break from league duty by heading to Paris with team-mates Aidan Nesbitt and Lawrence Shankland and their partners, spending a day at Disneyland.
And the 25-year-old reckons the mini-break will prove beneficial both for the season ahead and in preparation for today’s league fixture against Queen of the South.
He told gmfc.net: “We’re usually off Wednesday but last week we got the Friday, Saturday and Sunday off because of the free weekend.
“Me, Shankland, Nesbitt and our better halves all went to Paris. It happened that way but it wasn’t meant to be that way; we all kind of met up separately.
“I actually bumped into Shankland taking a rest in Disneyland and we all went for a meal together. We ended up meeting up in the Paris the next night as well for a meal under the Eiffel Tower.
“I’m a big kid, a big hyperactive wean, as people can probably tell from my Tweets. We just went on all the rides and sat and watched the Disney castle at night.
“We were well impressed. Me and Shankland have a mutual love for the Lion King, so that was good. It was one of those ones where it wasn’t planned but we ended up having a really good time.
“I love playing football and training, but I’d say it’s definitely a good thing to get a few days away especially in a league like this where the fixtures come thick and fast.
“You get a wee itch for it again after a wee weekend off and come back raring to go. We’re looking forward to Queen of the South; we’ve been preparing all week.
“We’re not looking at the play-offs yet. We’re just taking it one game at a team, especially in this league where teams can put a wee run together, and we’ll see what happens tonight.”
3 Disney princesses in Paris ?????? @Shankland_25 @aidannesbitt1 #hakunamatata pic.twitter.com/g3Ovo4f0gT
— Mikey Doyle (@jmdoyley) March 4, 2017
The right-back is one of the players to have benefited from the Saturday off and expects to be available for selection today after sitting on the bench against Dundee United last time out.
Doyle added: “It gives some of the boys who’ve had wee knocks a couple of weeks to come back. Gary Oliver has been back training this week and I’m back full training and so is Jamie Lindsay. So that wee week has been good that way as well.
“The week before the Dundee United game, I only joined in on the Thursday and the Friday, and the gaffer kind of put me through some paces on the Friday afternoon to see how the ankle was.
“He could tell I was 90 per cent. I wasn’t getting any pain off it, but I was a wee bit worried about it when I was practicing. But this week I’ve been back full contact so I’m back fit and available for selection.”
Image: David Bell