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3 defeats in a row against Queens Park, Arbroath and last
Saturday against East Fife continued to underline the close season challenge
faced by Warriors boss, Campbell Money in reshaping his squad for the new
campaign. True to his word, he’s now taking the opportunity to give youth a
chance and this will continue to be the case for tomorrow’s trip to Montrose. “I
was pleased with our first 70 minutes display at Arbroath, we looked comfortable
against a team challenging for the Title and showed real character to get back
to 1-1 after they took the lead against the run of play. It’s fair to say we
lost a poor second goal but it was the manner in which senior players then
seemed to accept defeat that annoyed me the most – trust me, there were some
harsh words in the dressing room afterwards. The manner of the defeat told me
all I needed to know about a number of players, I can forgive mistakes but not
the level of performance in the last 20 minutes, which was simply unacceptable
from experienced professionals in the team.”
Scott McManus
As a result, several changes were made to last Saturday’s
starting line up with youngster Robbie Peebles joining Gary Thom and Scott
McManus in the starting XI and the bench comprising 5 players under 17 years of
age. “Overall, it was an exciting game from a neutral point of view and a
worthwhile game giving me the opportunity to blood some more of our excellent
crop of young players and I felt they handled themselves well. The manner in
which we conceded some of the goals was disappointing but no more so than in
other games with a more experienced line up. I always knew that East Fife would
pose a real threat up front with O’Reilly and Nicholas causing us problems
throughout the 90 minutes as they have done against other teams but the
youngsters can hold their heads high as I thought they performed well.”
The Warriors battled back from 2-0 down to draw level and
again got it back to 4-3 before JP McBride saw red for the second time this
season but Money had no grumbles with the decision. “JP deserved to go but who
knows what might have happened; we were right back in the match but the
dismissal made the last 15 minutes or so more comfortable for them. On a more
positive vein, it was good to see Gary Thom score his first senior goal with a
fine header and Scott McManus scored for the second week running- a good strike
considering he was off balance. In addition, John Dempster scored his 7th
since joining us in January and is now joint top scorer at the club; he has
taken to 3rd Division football like a duck to water and proved on
Saturday what a good player he is, I’m looking forward to more from him next
season. I was also impressed by Robbie Peebles who showed great maturity for a
16 year old at right back with an accomplished display.”
John Dempster - hoping for more of the same!
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