McKinnon fired up and looking for payback in battle of big guns
POLLOK supporters will be hoping not to be saying “nearly” on Saturday when Cumnock visit Newlandsfield for the pick of the Macron Scottish Junior Cup 3rd Round ties.
New Pollock manager Murdie McKinnon nearly made a dream start to his tensure last weekend but his side were unlucky to lose 1-0 at home to runaway league leader Hurlford United.
The spotlight was on McKinnon after the shock ousting of manager Tony McInally last week.
The new man set out his first Lok stall, benching both Ross Brash and David Gormley, to bring the more competitive Ryan McGregor into midfield as well as restoring Grant Evans to the right side of a towering four-man rearguard that included skipper Paul Gallagher, Danny Boyle and Mark Sideserf.
This solidity resulted in Stuart McCann being the only recognised front man with Shaun Fraser in close roving support along and the pace of Gary McCann coming from deeper.
The setback of Hurlford scoring first through the Paul “Taz” McKenzie heralded the introduction of powerful striker Gormley for Fraser followed by playmaker Brash taking over from McGregor. And Pollok finished the game on top but failing to break through an outstanding Ayrshire backline.
McKinnon said: “My only view going into last Saturday was to keep a measure of continuity in the team and not to make wholesale changes. There’s no denying I have inherited a terrific squad of top Junior players.
“Yes, I did tweak things ever so slightly but not in any way to the detriment of our performance which only lacked a goal because I truly believe if we had scored first then the points would have been in the bag.
“To come so near to inflicting a first defeat on Hurlford is encouraging and we now have to focus on producing the same level of performance against Cumnock … but this time with a scoring payback.”
McKinnon added: “I have a lot to get my head around before next Saturday and I am aware there are high expectations at this club but I also have high expectations and my aim is for them to ripple out to everyone around me at Pollok.”