COLD COMFORT AFTER KASHMIR
Peterhead boss Robertson is delighted to be back in the relative warmth of Scottish football... but has a job on his hands trying to save the Blue Toon
KELTY HEARTS 3 O’Ware 46, Low 83 pen, Agyeman 90 PETERHEAD 0
THE imperatives of football respect no borders. ‘It’s a long way from Kashmir to Kelty,’ David Robertson is informed, almost unnecessarily, in the wake of defeat in freezing Fife. ‘I don’t know,’ says the new Peterhead manager. ‘Temperatures in Kashmir are about zero at the moment.’
A cynic might suggest that his new club’s hopes of avoiding relegation stand at that precise mark. Robertson, though, is an optimist. In his managerial journey from Elgin, through Montrose to Real Kashmir, he has had to be.
He has, however, time on his side. His predecessor, the estimable Jim McInally, had an era at the club rather than merely a tenure. A man who honed his football talents under Jim McLean at Dundee United and Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest, McInally resigned from his Peterhead post after 11 years last month.
There is patience at Balmoor Stadium. Again, it might be needed. A free weekend is followed by the visit of Clyde. Both are adrift at the bottom of League One. It is a straight fight to avoid the automatic relegation place before Santa sorts out the elves’ overtime.
‘We did well for long periods of the game,’ says Robertson as defeat in his first match confirms much of what he already feared. Experienced players are injured and Peterhead are operating on youth and dwindling confidence.
The situation can be addressed. ‘There are a lot of good things here,’ he says. ‘This is only the third occasion that I’ve been with the team so it is hard to make too many changes.’
He adds: ‘We know there is quality here and there are those who are playing with injury.’
Time may heal. But there was an added bruise in that defeat by Kelty involving a red card to Andy McDonald and an inevitable suspension.
But Robertson insists: ‘The free week gives us a bit of leeway to work on some stuff. It gives injured players time to get fit, too.’
He is aware a huge test awaits in just his second match in charge. ‘Yes, the Clyde game is a big, big match for us. There are lots of positives. We are working to get some players in during the window too.’
The absence of experienced players such as Ryan Dow and Paul Dixon is keenly felt but Robertson is resilient. ‘It has been enjoyable so far, not the second half today, but as an immediate experience,’ he says.
And how about being back in Scottish football after a spell in Kashmir that was immortalised by a defining TV documentary?
‘It is good,’ he says. ‘I did want to come back and it has happened quicker than I thought it would. It is a tough spot but there is time to turn it around.’
TOUGH spots are not exclusively reserved for football managers. There are dots of blue speckled around New Central Park. Rosemary Cowe, 61, sports a Peterhead shirt under her jacket and talks quietly of her debt to the club. ‘I support the club and the club has supported me,’ she says. ‘I had a health issue and they have been amazing. It has given me fantastic strength to have them behind me.’
She is the embodiment of the faithful supporter. ‘I follow the team everywhere they go,’ she says. ‘It’s that simple. I try to get to every match. The board allows us to travel down on the bus and I always take them up on that.’
She views McInally with great affection but accepts why he felt he had to resign. ‘It’s been a bad patch, no doubt about that,’ she says. ‘But he was a great manager here and maybe he felt he had done what he could.’
Graeme Williamson has driven to the match. ‘This is the nearest away game for us after Montrose,’ he says. ‘We can get down in just over two and a half hours. I suppose it takes some commitment to do it because we have won just three away matches in 18 months.’
Only 32, Williamson is a long-time supporter. ‘I have had some great memories, probably the best was getting into the league.’
He is sanguine about the departure of McInally. ‘He was a good servant to the club but the season has not been great,’ he says. ‘We lost a lot of players so it was hard for him but he has made the right choice to give another guy a go. He will always be respected by supporters. He did a lot behind the scenes.’
Williamson is aware of the scale of the immediate task. ‘It is between us and Clyde for relegation. Even the play-off place is a difficult spot. We have lost out in six play-offs over the years. We have an atrocious record.’
The afternoon unfolds in what is a wearingly recognisable fashion for Peterhead. A doughty defensive display is rendered irrelevant by a goal lost at a corner, then a penalty, and consequently a red card, and a late goal to exacerbate the pain. ‘Come on, ref,’ shouts a mouth above a blue scarf. ‘Put us out of our pain.’
THE subject of pain and need is not avoided by the Peterhead board. In the couthy Kelty boardroom, Conrad Ritchie, on the Peterhead board for just six months, talks quietly but passionately about the priorities for the club.
‘First, it is a difficult time for the club and we need to avoid relegation,’ he says. ‘But we are also primarily a community-facing club.
‘That’s what excites me. Yes, football is the priority but there is so much more going on in the background.’
He adds: ‘We interact with local charities and that is very, very important to the board and one of the reasons I became involved.’
He has helped the club with
I support the club and they have supported me. I had a health issue and they’ve been amazing. It has given me fantastic strength
community projects for 12 years before joining the board recently. ‘I am not really a football fan,’ he admits. So why commit so much time to a football club, why sit in a cold stand in Fife of a Saturday afternoon?
‘We are doing good. We take people who may have gone down the wrong road in life and help put them on the right track,’ Ritchie explains. ‘Somehow the motivation to do this is in me, it’s in the club and it’s in the club’s DNA. We don’t broadcast it but that is what it is all about.
‘We have a very good idea of what is needed in their own locality. We have a great facility but we want everyone to get the benefit of that.’ Les Hill (left), vice-chairman at Peterhead, agrees. ‘The club is a central hub for the community. We will shortly have a day when the elderly are taken to the ground and directors and staff will cook and serve up food. We will also have our delivery of food parcels.’ Hill came to Peterhead in 2008 and was immediately ‘hooked’ by the club. ‘I went to a couple of games, very much enjoyed the atmosphere and the people. It was fantastic.’ He adds: ‘I was invited on to the board and here I am.’ He points to both great and disappointing moments but adds: ‘I watched my team run out at Hampden for a cup final (Petrofac, 2016) with my company’s name on their shirts.’
That concern is LFH, an engineering company in Ellon, but Hill admits being on a board is hardly a refuge from business pressure. ‘It’s been stressful of late,’ he concedes. ‘There have been setbacks along the way, but that is football.’
He pays tribute to McInally and his staff for their contribution and commitment to the club.
‘I suppose it’s a new chapter now but our ambitions are basically still the same in a football sense,’ adds Hill. ‘We want to progress up the leagues. We have always had the Championship as a target.’
The avoidance of a drop to League Two is the immediate priority. ‘The manager needs a bit of time and he will be given it,’ says Hill.
There is no reason to disbelieve him. It’s the Peterhead way.