Dalbeattie Star boss Ritchie Maxwell believes the disappointment at Saturday’s defeat to Celtic’s youngsters shows just how much his side has progressed over the last few years.
The Old Firm B team have notched up some big wins since joining the Lowland League in the summer but only beat Star 1-0 with Adam Brooks getting the only goal.
Maxwell said: “I think it’s a good marker in terms of where we’ve come from over the last two seasons. We’re competing with these teams now and we’re disappointed when we don’t come away with any points so it shows the improvement we’ve made.
“It’s never nice losing games but I thought our performance was really pleasing. The workrate and effort the boys put in was superb. We managed to nullify their threat, especially in the second half. We made a wee tactical change at half-time and we had a couple of half chances. Against teams of that level you’ve got to be clinical and take them as you’re not going to get many.
“They are a very good team. They’re comfortable on the ball and had a lot of possession.
“We let them have it for a spell and made ourselves difficult to break down. In terms of quality they’re up there with one of the best teams we’ve played this season but you’d expect that. The boys had to put in a lot of work off the ball, which makes it difficult as well as when you do get it back there’s some tired legs.
“It’s important your quality is good on the ball so you can keep it and try to build phases of play yourself and try to create chances. It was definitely a different game from the other ones in terms of how we played.
“I thought our players were excellent on the day. We had a couple of marginal calls. Russell Currie was through one-on-one twice and you need them to go in your favour and the linesman to keep your flag down. On Saturday they went against us unfortunately.”
Star can now look forward to five games at Islecroft in a row – although that could change depending on the Scottish Cup draw – and they have a busy few days coming up with East Stirling, Vale of Leithen and local rivals Gretna 2008 all heading to Dalbeattie next week.
And Maxwell is hoping the lack of an evening game this midweek will help some of the injury issues clear up for the packed week to come.
He said: “We had to change the team on Saturday as we lost Lewis Sloan in the warm-up and all three subs were enforced due to injury. Hopefully we can get them back fit and available for Saturday.
“One was just a knock and I’m pretty confident he’ll be available.
“It’s another important phase for us. We have to put Saturday behind us – like we did after the Spartans defeat and went on to get a good win at Gala.”
