Rutherglen Glencairn boss says his side 'could have won by five or six' against Thorniewood

Rutherglen Glencairn boss Willie Harvey claims his side could have scored “five or six” goals against Thorniewood United on Saturday.

But he says taking points from places like Robertson Park is exactly what his side must do if they are to win the league or earn promotion back to the West of Scotland Premier League.

Jack McIlveen’s first-half header and a Harry Mitchell free kick gave Glens a 2-0 win and all three points from a tricky encounter, but Harvey was left purring about his side.

He said: “We’ve told the players that if you want to get promoted or you want to win the league then you’ve got to pick up points at places like Thorniewood.

“Teams are going to go to Thorniewood and drop points, and fortunately we haven’t dropped points yet.

“It was a really good wee win.

“Thorniewood have picked up some decent points, they’ve been scoring goals, so a bit positive is that we kept a clean sheet.

Boss Willie Harvey says his side are starting to hit real form at the moment (Dominic Cocozza)

“And in fairness we could have won the game by five or six.

“That’s not being derogatory to Thorniewood, because they had one or two chances, and the game could have finished 6-2 or 7-3.

“On any other given day, Ryan McManus could have scored another hat-trick, while big Jack McIlveen could have scored two or three as well.

“We ended up taking the two of them off towards the end, not because of the way they were playing, but because they were so tired, they had done so much work.

“If I’m taking you off because you’ve run yourself into the ground it’s not a bad excuse, or a reason to get taken off!”

That was Glencairn’s second win from their five games so far, with just one league defeat, leaving them 11th in the table, and Harvey hopes they build on that.

Harvey says his players have taken on board what he has asked them to do this season (Rutherglen Glencairn FC)

He said: “I felt we played really well. We’re starting to play the way we’ve been asking them to, and we’re now getting our rewards for it.

“It’s about momentum, but if you work it out we’ve only lost twice this season.

“A lot of people don’t realise that we haven’t lost a lot of games. Okay, we had a couple of draws at the start, but that was us getting used to the way we wanted them to play, and buying into it.

“You can see how much work the players have done with the coaching staff, and you can see they’re getting their rewards, because it’s all coming together.”

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