WHO DARES WINCES

Jags team bonding session was the complete opposite of fun. it ended in tears. escape attempts. and a kidnapping!

- BY FRASER WILSON

RUSSELL MARTIN may have gone to the extreme in his bid to dodge the bullet at Rangers.

But ordering his players to take the plunge in Loch Lomond has nothing on what faced former Ibrox keeper Cammy Bell and struggling Partick Thistle at the British Army training base just round the corner seven years ago.

If Martin's troops thought their wake-up call by the Bonnie Banks was brutal then what Gary Caldwell had in store for his shellshocked Jags squad after a misfiring start to the Championship campaign was borderline barbarous.

An exercise with the Parachute Regiment at the MOD camp at Garelochhead that reduced one first-team star to TEARS and saw the Jagskitman KIDNAPPED is just a taste of an afternoon that even saw one player attempt to escape the madness.

It's no wonder Bell can now admit he’s never been happier to have been injured that day.

The 38-year-old could see the merits in what Caldwell was trying, Even if he was delighted to have to sit out the worst of the tasks.

It never really helped turn results though.

And should that be the case with Rangers, then Bell fears the worst for Martin.

Recalling his brush with national service, Bell told Record Sport: “Yes, I remember that well!

“It was for team bonding, for building characters.

“It wasn't fun — it was the complete opposite of fun. But it was an exercise to work together as a team.

“We turned up for training at 8.30 on a Saturday morning in the middle of November when we had a free weekend. The players knew we were going away to some sort of camp but we didn't have a clue what it was.