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Paul Thomson

Wishaw boss happy with St Anthony's point after key striker pulled out in warm-up for West of Scotland league opener

Wishaw boss David Dunn admits he was happy to take a point from their West of Scotland Second Division opener away to St Anthony's after a nightmare build-up.

The Beltane Park side were missing a host of key players due to injuries and absences, but their plans were thrown into real turmoil just 20 minutes before kick-off when star striker Kieran Brannan pulled up in the warm-up.

The Wishy hitman had been struggling with a calf problem in pre-season and passed a fitness test before the game.

However, he was unable to start the match and Wishaw went on to draw the game 1-1 when 28th minute strike cancelled out Ged Dodds' opener for the hosts.

Dunn said: "We want to win games but when I look back on everything that went on, with an eventful week and players missing, it was a good point.

"It could have gone either way because we both had chances to win it so I'm quite happy with a point.

"We lost Kieran Brannan in the warm-up on Saturday, which was a huge blow to us.

"He hadn't trained for a couple of weeks but he passed a fitness test. We thought he was going to be okay but he pulled up 20 minutes before kick-off so we were forced into a reshuffle.

"It wasn't ideal.

"We were still missing four or five players, but the boys did well considering all that went on.

"You don't want to get beat on the first day but if I am being critical it is probably the worst we've played so far.

"In pre-season we've been excellent - and I know pre-season games are totally different - so it was a bit disappointing.

"I felt we could have done a lot better in a lot of aspects, but the boys know that.

"The good thing is I've got a lot of boys coming back this week so there will be competition for places again.

"Aiden Ward, Josh Dean and Scott Nicol are all back and we'll just need to see how Kieran is."

Wishaw now welcome Renfrew to the Beltane on Saturday for their first home game of the season and Dunn says it's imperative they make it intimidating for their opponents this term, in what will be a competitive division.

He added: "I think this league is going to be very tight.

"A lot of teams will beat each other so I think we need to turn our place into a fortress.

"It is difficult going away from home because there's a lot of hard places to go in this league.

"We need to take as many points at home as we can to give ourselves a chance of finishing high up the table."

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