FROM THE DUGOUT

Monday mornings are always made easier when you have had a victory at the weekend, and to win with a great performance is even more pleasing.

 We were dealt  a double blow before the game when Scott Gray declared himself unfit, after failing to recover from knee injury he sustained during the Musselburgh game and worse news was that Liam Scott’s shoulder injury needs to be seen by a specialist and it is likely that he will have a lengthy lay off until he fully recovers. Still on the injury list is Roddy Black, John Roberts and Mikey McIIravey however we are making some positive progress with them.

 Before the game I spoke to the boys about putting in a performance for 90 minutes rather than just playing in spells, the previous week we dominated the first 45 minutes and let a 2 goal lead slip so we needed to learn from this.

 Full credit goes to the players because we had to make two changes to the starting eleven with Jamie McCabe coming back in team and we handed a full debut to talented youngster Bailey Steel. We controlled the game from the first minute to the final whistle, we started the game at really high tempo and intensity that Hill of Beith struggled to cope with. We scored two very good goals through Jamie McCabe and Gordon McDonald but in fairness we should have scored 4 or 5 in the first half we were that much on top. We asked the guys at half time to sustain that level of dominance in the second half and full credit to them again because we continued creating chance after chance, the contest should have been over when we were awarded a penalty however in form striker Gordon McDonald was denied with a great save by the goalie.

 The game finished 2-0 and we got everything we set out for, 3 points, a solid 90 minute performance and in doing so we have moved ourselves up the table into a very strong position in the league. We are now sitting 9^th in the league with 11 games left to play, currently we are 3 points off 5^th place. The league is very tight from 5^th to bottom so these 11 remaining games are crucial that we continue on with performances like we produced Saturday.

There was not a poor performance from us on Saturday but a special mention for Bailey Steel who played his first competitive 90 minutes for us and played very well.

Next up for us is a welcomed break from the league when we entertain Islavale FC in the GA Cup, this is a competition we want to do well in but being at home and undefeated on Laing Park since mid September we have every reason to be confident.