We sat down with the gaffer, Phil McGuire to chat and catch up on a hectic couple of weeks
“It has been a busy few weeks”
“Yes It’s been a hectic few weeks for the club, Saturday and Wednesday fixtures for the last month has meant that the games have been coming thick and fast, win,lose or draw.
The good thing is we have been on a good solid run, three defeats in the last 14 games.”
“This weekend we meet Lochee United again”
“Two weeks ago we lost at home to Lochee a team who are undefeated in the league. I felt that we made too many errors resulting in conceding goals. When you give good teams like that an advantage it’s always difficult to get back in the game. However, we had no time to dwell and visited Lochee in the East Region Cup, this was a different game in which I think we played to our strengths and limited chances but crucially the errors and if we do that we will always have a chance. It was a fantastic performance from the team and we deservedly ran out 5-2 winners on the night and every single player showed what they can produce. ”
“Now we meet again in our final league game at Thomson Park and just like the previous games we know we must be switched on, work hard and do the basics right. If we don’t then we know it’s a long afternoon against a excellent Super League outfit and most likely deserved League Champions.”
“Looking back to last weekend and we finally beat Downfield at the fourth attempt”
“Yes we hadn’t beaten them this season and it was important for us that if we had ambitions to progress. We had a great start and I felt we controlled the tempo of the game, yes we maybe lacked a bit of intensity but that is mainly down to tired legs but we turned in a solid professional performance and ran out comfortable 3-0 winners.”
“Then on Wednesday night the East Region Cup Quarter Final at North End Park”
“North End are deserved winners of their league and are an excellent footballing side which made the game a very enjoyable match. I felt that in the first half we stood off our opponents and allowed them to have easy possession albeit there were few clear cut chances until North End took a deserved lead. The boys deserve credit for digging in and scoring an excellent leveller through Pat Martin. At Half Time I told the players to get five yards closer and move the ball quicker and I felt that during the second half we controlled vast portions of the game and took a deserved lead through Sam, we could have killed the game off if we had taken one of the two or three excellent chances we created but we didnt. We paid the price in the final seconds of the game, nerves, inexperience at that moment cost us and to be fair Gary Sutherland has been a great scorer of goals his career and again pulled another one out of the bag and he probably couldn’t have hit it any sweeter.”
“On to penalties”
“Yes and in truth it’s the luck on that, however, I told the players to simply step up, decide where to hit the ball and and stick to it and Jamie Robbie would be our hero. The guys penalties were pretty much spot on and Jamie was indeed the hero with two saves and we went through the Semi Final and I felt it was fully merited. Full credit to North End as they battled and continued to try and play and they will be an excellent addition to the Super League next season.”
“So how do you summarise the last couple of weeks”
“I must praise the players for their work rate and dedication over the last two months. I asked the players that come the end of the season it’s important that it doesn’t dwindle out and we must be at least competing or setting foundations for the following season. We are challenging in both cups and that is a massive positive for the squad and shows that if we work together and work hard we can be competitive for the whole season which must be a basic standard we set as a club.”
