Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Winter arrives at Cumbernauld
Sean Winter insists he has joined Cumbernauld Colts to challenge for the Lowland League title this season.
The 33-year-old is a two-time champion with old club East Kilbride and believes the forthcoming season is “wide open” after Kelty Hearts won promotion last season and his old club Kilby lost a number of key players over the summer.
Winter was unveiled as manager James Orr’s latest signing on Sunday after being ‘forced out’ of EK last season and having a brief spell in the West of Scotland League with St Roch’s.
He knows his former side will be among the favourites to the lift the trophy in a fifth tier expected to get more focus with the arrival of Rangers and Celtic ‘B’ teams into the setup for one season only.
Colts, who finished 14th in last season’s curtailed campaign, have been among the top sides in recent seasons, but Winter believes they have the quality to go all the way this term and cause an upset.
He said: “With Kelty being out of the league and East Kilbride losing a lot of players, it’s been blown wide open.
“Rangers and Celtic [B teams] coming in as well, they’ll cause a few upsets.
“I think it’s going to be a really exciting season and I just felt it was the right move for me.
“I think it’s anyone’s league this season and there’s probably about six or seven teams who will fancy their chances this year.
“I’m really looking forward to it and I’m excited to see how the season goes.
“I’m quite confident that we will be up there challenging.
“I wouldn’t go somewhere and be quite happy to finish fifth or sixth.
“My intention is to go and finish as high as possible.
“If you don’t start by thinking you are going to compete for the league, then what’s the point?
“That’s my intention. The manager is saying it’s his intention to challenge up the top end of the league.
“We signed some good players. “We’ve got Dylan Forrest in, who was at Celtic and Hamilton before, and Stephen O’neill who is a top player that EK have tried to sign a couple of times as well, and Craig Murray who was at Celtic and Aberdeen when he was younger.
“There’s one or two others I know who are possibly coming in, and if they do they will add a lot of experience.
“So who knows what can happen? “I’m certainly going there to compete for the league.”
Winter, who lives in East Kilbride, was gutted to leave his hometown club last season but is looking forward to a campaign away from K-park, following a five-year spell there.
He did consider staying at St Roch’s but found the challenge at Colts more appealing, and he was blown away by the club’s facilities at Broadwood, which they share with Clyde.
Winter added: “Things didn’t go my way last year in terms of getting a game anyway and I was forced into leaving [EK]. It was never my intention to leave there. I’ve said many times I would have happily retired there.
“But I went to St Roch’s and played one game for them before it all shut down. I think there was a fee involved to East Kilbride as well, so I felt quite bad and I was going to stay there for another season. I liked the setup there and I know guys like Barry Russell and Jamie Longworth.
“I was close to signing again, but I just felt I wasn’t quite ready to drop down a few leagues yet.
“I went down to meet the Colts manager at Broadwood and I was blown away by the setup.
“They own Broadwood and lease it out to Clyde, so the stadium is geared around the Colts, they’ve got the dressing room and the players lounge, so I was very impressed with everything.
“The manager was cracking and now he wants to go and compete.
“At EK, it’s a different type of pressure to elsewhere in the league. There you are expected to win the league, win every game before a ball is even kicked.
“You are put down as favourites every year. So I just wanted to go somewhere where I could relax a wee bit, enjoy playing football again and try and be involved in a successful team, make them a wee bit better and try and give them the ambition to go up and compete at the top of the league.”