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Pick up where you left off.
In true Rovers fashion, the management team once again went through every possible emotion during our first league encounter back. It’s like we’ve never been away.
We spoke before the game about how football was a great escape. It’s obviously been quite a difficult wee period in our town with the passing of a former Rovers Manager. I wanted the boys to go out and forget about the world for a minute. There’s no doubt they would’ve done Mr French proud with that performance. It goes without saying that one was for him.
The hosts having dropped down from the first division were never going to be an easy opponent to manoeuvre. Having followed the Shippy’s pre-season schedule we knew that coming into this one we’d have to be at our very best to come back over the bridge with a share of the spoils. And to be fair as the scoreline suggested it was far from a comfortable afternoon.
In the opening thirty five minutes however I felt as though we had the better of the game. Although finding ourselves behind, in my opinion it came against the run of play. Grado (Grant Wilson) and Robbie (Renwick) had started off in menacing fashion and the latter almost broke the deadlock after some really good play, just missing the near post with a fine effort. We put together some really good patterns of play so to concede the first goal it was probably one of the most frustrating elements of the day. The referee possibly makes a mistake in awarding the throw in to Burntisland however we don’t react and concede a really disappointing goal. Again though, credit to the boys as they recover the deficit seven minutes later from a well taken corner from Ross Lamb and Jamie Mackay, who never put a foot wrong all day, glances in a well-timed header. I felt that we more than deserved the equaliser going into half time.
Sadly, less can be said about our start to the second half. We just never really got going and that’s the hard truth that we will need to look at. It was the polar opposite to the first forty five. So we had zero complaints about going behind. Annoyingly it probably gave us the kick we needed. We freshened things up a little and I felt the depth we had today shows how close this group really is. The old cliché of ‘’it’s a squad game” certainly proved its worth as it was no doubt the whole group that got us over the line today. The debutants in Ross Coats and Grant Wilson played a huge part in this victory which was really pleasing, but I genuinely believe the togetherness of the changing room saw us come back twice to grab all three points.
From a neutral perspective the game would’ve been a good watch. I felt it was a really good spectacle for our division. A closely fought game that I don’t feel either deserved to lose but for us a massive marker going forward. It’s important we build upon it as we take the short trip on Tuesday night to Patties Road. Ainsley will have his Edinburgh South side well up for the game and we expect another extremely tough game ahead.
Proud of the boys today, but there’s no time to enjoy it, we have to move on quickly.
It’s great to be back; I think!