Mowbray: International breaks have cost us nine points

Aiden McGeady - big match for the Republic of Ireland midfielder this weekend

Tony Mowbray watched his players disappear to their various national training camps again this week and he couldn't disguise his frustration at yet another couple of weeks without many of his first team squad.

Given the number of international players at the club it's no surprise that the Lennoxtown training schedule is affected more than any other in Scotland and the manager cites the regular distraction of these breaks as another reason that his team haven't yet built up a head of steam during this campaign.

In fact the boss insists that these splits in the schedule are part of the reason that the team are not where they should be at this stage of the season - which is eight or nine points better off.

"It's been stop-start and we've suffered inconsistency because of the international breaks." said Mowbray. "There's been no consistency of preparation for games. We're either playing three a week or an international comes along and you don't see your players for two weeks."

"Then they come back and we're into another run of games." continued the manager. "I strongly believe our team can only get better. After these international matches the breaks will become less frequent. We're top after the first quarter but I feel frustrated we're not eight or nine points clear which is where we should be."