New Blackburn United gaffer Jamie McCormick spoke of his disappointment in his side’s performance in their 1-1 draw with Linlithgow Rose, but praised their character and said he was happy with the result, writes Callum McCormack.
Scott Richards had given the hosts the lead with just 10 minutes to go but they were unable to hold on as Owen Andrew pounced in injury-time to secure a draw for the away side.
McCormick said: “I thought we were disappointing. We’ve had a good pre-season, we’ve won all our games and I just thought we’ve let ourselves down. Our ball retention was poor but I thought the character of the guys was fantastic. We defended really well.
"The corner at the end is frustrating but I think having watched the game we’ve got to be happy with that.”
He also praised goalkeeper Jakub Welna with the keeper having made a number of key stops during the game, saying: "He was man of the match. It was good, he was outstanding, he did a lot of things right.”
The new gaffer, who had been a long-term assistant to now retired Mark Campbell, called on his team to take their late disappointment as a lesson, acknowledging that his youthful side have work to do to reach their potential.
He added: "We’ve got a young team, the average age is 22 so we’ve got a lot to learn. We need to coach them and make them better as we go forward.
"They’ll learn from that, we’re on the board, we’ve got a point, we were playing the team that a lot of people probably have as the favourites for the league. Yeah, they were the better team over the 90 minutes but I think people forget that defending is part of the game as well. So I’m delighted.”
McCormick’s side were sucker-punched by a late Linlithgow Rose equaliser and he says he and his coaching staff perhaps have to take some of the blame, saying: "I think we had made so many substitutions. It came from a corner and I think we maybe didn’t get the information onto the substitute as to what we wanted.
"We were trying to shout to the substitute and say ‘we need you to drop back into an area’ he didn’t hear us and that’s exactly where they scored from.”
“If you’re looking at it, we would have preferred the three points. But, a point? We’re happy with it because we can perform better.”
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