Saturday 26 August 2023
Montgomery Park
East of Scotland Premier Division
Penicuik Athletic
Starting XI | Leiper, Melvin, Young (Baptie 65), Laing, Wardlaw, Furness (Roue 80), Buckle (McManus 80), Coogans (Robertson 73), Forbes (c), Dawson (Philp 73), MacKenzie
Unused subs | Fraser, McLean
Goalscorers | MacKenzie (28), Coogans (38)
Hill of Beath Hawthorn
Starting XI | Penman, Runciman, Barney, Uphill, Baur, Love (c), Adamson, Galloway, Allum, D Watt, Tosh
Subs | M Watt, Bauld, Rendall, Day, Murdoch, Fleming, Young
Goalscorer | D Watt (35)
Gaffer, a 2-1 win today against Hill of Beath, how are you feeling after that?
“Good, yeah good. Three points are important obviously. You know I think Hill of Beath threw everything at us, we maybe rode our luck a little bit, Kyle Leiper was fantastic in goals today. But when you’ve got big strikers like that, who are a handful upfront, they’ve got big six foot six defenders, you know they’re going to create a lot of chances from set plays, corner kicks. But we held our own and earned the win.”
You mentioned riding our luck, is that something we haven’t had so far this season?
“I think in football you make your own luck. So I think after the last few weeks and what this club went through, I think we deserved a wee bit of luck today. I’m just delighted to have got the three points.”
There were a number of the Under 20s involved in the squad today, is it just about giving opportunities to them?
“They’re good enough. Great result last night. I won’t hesitate to throw them in them into the games. I very much believe in our youth here. You know Josh Philp, ninety-third minute there, makes a tackle where he could have got himself hurt. That’s the commitment we want and I can’t ask much more of the kid.”
We now move onto our Scottish Cup tie with Rutherglen Glencairn here next Saturday, what’s the thoughts going into that?
“Good, we know they’ll be well organised, well drilled. I’ve got a couple of reports to get through this week. But it’s a great occasion for the club, a great occasion for the people around Penicuik and I’m very hopeful we’ll see a lot of them here next week and we’ll aim to get into the next round.”