Maiden victory a relief for Muirhead
NEILSTON ................................................. 2 BLANTYRE VICTORIA .............................. 1
Kevin Muirhead admits he’s relieved to bag his first competitive win since taking over the reins as Neilston boss.
And now the Farmer’s Boys manager is determined to build on the solid foundation they’ve struck on after a tough settling-in period.
After defeats to Rutherglen Glencairn and St Roch’s, Muirhead tasted victory for the first time since replacing Chris Cameron and Derek Carson thanks to strikes from Darren Jones and Shaun Gallagher at the Brig O’Lea Stadium.
The East Renfrewshire side now face a difficult trio of league fixtures against First Division title hopefuls Gartcairn, Drumchapel and St Cadoc’s.
But Muirhead insists Neilston have no fear as long as they stay as solid at the back as they did against Blantyre.
Muirhead said:“The previous weekend we lost 3-1 to St Roch’s, having been 1-0 up at half-time. We played very well in the first half, but the second half was simply unacceptable.
“We changed the game plan against Blantyre to try and make us more difficult to beat. It certainly worked because they couldn’t break our defence down at all. They could only score direct from a free-kick.
“We’ve got lots of threats and quality up front but we also need to tie that together with a strong defence. The boys were excellent, all the way up to the strikers who were pressing hard.
“We’ve really improved recently and I feel like the players are starting to settle down now. There was a real buzz the first few weeks and I think some boys were maybe too eager to impress.
“We need everyone to play together, not as individuals and that’s starting to shine through now.
“It is a relief to get that first win on the board and the table certainly makes a lot better reading for us now. It’s still insanely tight.
“We’ve got to pick up as many points as we can but we do have three very difficult games coming up now.
“Gartcairn score a hell of a lot of goals and Drumchapel just beat Glenafton in the South Challenge Cup.
“But we fear no one and you can see that anyone can beat anyone in this league on their day. We’ll do everything we can to build on this win.”
Muirhead is hoping to strengthen the Neilston squad over the next few weeks, with targets already identified to come in and provide fresh competition for places.
He added:“We’re working on getting a few players in, having let Darren Kennedy and Dylan Henry move on.
“The quality in the squad is already very good but we need to bring some fresh blood in because I want that pressure on players to need to be consistently good every week.
“We want to create that atmosphere where players know they need to be right at it to stay in the team.
“We’ve identified new signings we think can help with that and hopefully we’ll be able to announce those soon.”