Thistle boss praises a 'Lionheart' performance
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Russell United 1 Forres Thistle 2
Forres boss Kevin Walker praised every single player for producing a lionhearted performance as the ten man Jags stung Hall Russell United on Saturday. The former Mechanics centre back took great pride in the performance of his team.
“Obviously we are delighted to get the win but even moreso given that we were down to ten men before half time. It was a great effort from the lads in the second half and although we were on the back foot they were tremendous.
“I asked them if they had the heart, the desire to stay in the league and I think they proved that they have that. I couldn’t single out anyone in particular everyone played their part in some shape or form. It was a really good battle in the second half.”
Amongst those who were sharing the acclaim for their role in the game was the trio of Forres Academy players who came off the bench to put some fresh impetus into the team despite a 4-2 league cup semi final win over a strong Milne’s High team in the morning.
“I really appreciate the fact that they are playing a hard game in the morning, jumping straight into a car and coming on in for us in difficult circumstances.”
“We have been fortunate over the years in the fact we have been able to keep bringing in the young players through. Nearly every season we have lost players especially to the Highland League and we have managed to replace them and progress. I think there has been 15 ore 16 boys who have moved on to the SHFL or higher in my time and while I take some personal pride in that it is also down to the coaching staff as a whole and those that support the youth game in the town.”
However, as ever, Kevin doesn’t have his selection worries to seek as he looks ahead to this weekend’s match “We look forward to the Banchory game this week, but we have a bit of a price to pay from Saturday; Craig Thompson suspended is, Bryan Henderson and Charlie Beck have both picked up injuries and are not fit for Saturday while Richard Jack is offshore. We hope to have Alan Angus, Aaron Maclennan, Jordan Robertson and Stevie Grant available and with Gordon Masson and Chris Ross coming back from injury in the next few weeks as well that will hopefully ease the situation.”
