COLL: IT’S NOT JOB DONE ’TIL WE SEAL RUN
COLL DONALDSON played through the pain to mark Falkirk’s title success – quipping that the optics of starting an early celebration wouldn’t have been so kind on him.
And the defender, standin skipper for much of the Bairns’ invincible season, vowed no one will tolerate a hangover – other than the one being nursed at the start of this week.
John McGlynn’s side wrapped up a return to the Championship at the fifth attempt seven days ago as Hamilton’s slip-up clinched the crown before kick-off.
A 7-1 rout of Montrose that followed suggested easing up isn’t on the agenda – with the club now just five games from an unbeaten league campaign.
Ahead of facing Cove at home, Donaldson said: “We enjoyed ourselves Saturday, Sunday and the manager was good to give us a day off at the start of the week.
“So time to nurse the hangover for a wee day or two and then back to preparing for Saturday.
“We’ve done that a couple of times this season, where the manager will say, ‘If you can get maximum points from the next three or four I’ll give you the Monday, Tuesday’.
“So it wasn’t any special treatment because we had won the league, it was just the way the manager had dangled the carrot.
“The gaffer mentioned Chesterfield who won the National League already and then over the Easter period lost two games.
“We’re maybe different to other teams who’ve won the league at this point because we still have something to play for – we still have that unbeaten record we aren’t taking lightly.
“Now there are only five games to go and the league is secure, it is something we can talk more openly about. We feel we should be able to go unbeaten and it’s something we’re still desperately working hard for. I’d been struggling with my groin for a few months – since the turn of the year – so I’ve just been managing that.
“Actually on Saturday in the warm-up I got a back spasm. I knew I had to play because how does that look when you’ve just won the league and you get injured in the warm-up... ‘Oh I can’t play, I’ll join Tom and Hendo in the stadium bar!’.”
Donaldson is relishing today’s chance to run out in front of a packed home ground, with how last week unfolded a little bizarre.
So too was the sight of McGlynn having a dance a couple of days after hailing Liam Henderson’s character on one hand and then pulling him up for dancing with a dodgy calf.
Donaldson added: “He probably just followed Hendo’s lead! That is the furthest thing from the gaffer’s character.
“But that is just the joy and overriding emotions at that point from the gaffer. Nobody works harder than him and nobody deserves to have a wee dance about on the park more!.”
Arron Darge’s patience has been rewarded with six successive starts for Cove, now in a three-way fight for two play-off places.
The defender, 20, who will face a late fitness test today, said: “I think the gaffer has noticed my attitude, always training and not kicking up a fuss about not playing.
“The next five games are all about getting ourselves in that top-four position then it’s a complete reset.”