Broxburn boss Brian’s pride in battling boys
Broxburn Athletic boss Brian McNaughton believes his team have shown there’s life in the lower leagues.
The East of Scotland side made St Mirren fight right to the end before knocking them out of the Scottish Cup with two late goals.
McNaughton, a former striker with Hearts, East Fife and Arbroath, was quite open that Broxburn came to Paisley to frustrate their top-flight opponents.
They certainly did that, with the Buddies dominating possession but not creating many chances until the visitors tired.
He said: “The gameplan was to stay in the game for as long as we could. It wasn’t a classic goal for their first.
“We knew that if they scored it was always going to be difficult.
“When you think it’s tier one against tier six, we showed there’s a bit of quality further down the chain.
“The players did exceptionally well.
“Fitness and full-time training will always come into it.
“When the second went in it was inevitable the third would follow. I was just a bit disappointed we didn’t get higher up the park at times.”
Broxburn only had a couple of efforts on goal, the best being a Ross Nimmo effort from distance that Vaclav Hladky had to watch carefully.
McNaughton, like everyone else in the ground, was impressed by the showing of goalie Connoe Wallace.
He added: “Last year we won our local league and he was exceptional. He’s been good this year too.
“He had a top game and did very well, as they all did. I’ve been pleased since the start of the season, nobody left anything on the park.
“If the football gods are with you, then you might get a positive result.”
The cheers of 1,600 travelling supporters must have helped to inspire the part-time players.
McNaughton said: The backing was fantastic. They were loud all the way through so hopefully we’ll get some of them turning up on a Saturday.
“We know a lot of them support other teams, but our park’s getting lifted so we’re playing at Bo’ness on Friday.
“It would be great if some of them come along.”