David Proctor says his Cumbernauld Colts side stood up to be counted as they fought back to draw 1-1 with Celtic ‘B’ in the Lowland League.
And he says Graham Holmes racing the length of the pitch to ensure they kept a point was a fantastic example to the rest of the team.
Callum Home headed in a Craig Holmes free kick to level in 84 minutes, after the visitors had taken the lead through Adam Brooks in just nine minutes.
“It can go either way when you go behind against either Celtic or Rangers,” he said. “You can either stand up or be counted, or crumble, but the boys were resilient and kept that belief in themselves that the opportunity would come.
“We displayed both sides of our game. In the first half we were just a wee bit too passive against Celtic, and probably stood off them.
“If you allow them that time to get into a rhythm they tend to be able to knock the ball about from side to side and they used the big pitch at Airdrie really well to their advantage.
“In the second half we got a little bit closer to them and tried to get in their faces that wee bit more.
“Once we did that we were able to nick it off them and play some good stuff of our own, got ourselves into dangerous areas and deservedly got the equaliser.
“We actually finished the game really strongly, which is one of the most pleasing things, with the energy levels of a part-time team, compared to a full-time club full of Scotland under-21 internationalists.
“The likes of Graham Holmes sprinting back in the 90th minute to make sure we then didn’t lose out on our point showed that he’s a great role model for the players round about him.”
Proctor has steered his side to 1-1 draws against both Rangers and Celtic’s ‘B’ sides in recent weeks, but says games against the likes of Saturday’s visitors Edinburgh University are more important.
He said: “Hopefully we can use these two results as a springboard between now and the end of the season.
“We’ve got some really good games coming up against teams round about us in the league, so we need to make sure we don’t just turn up against the big teams, and do ourselves justice.
“That’s how you can go on a wee run and then start climbing the table a few places before the end of the season – that’s the aim.
“We need to make sure we’re turning up with the same attitude that we would against Celtic or Rangers, play the football that we can do on Broadwood, and hopefully that will be enough to get us over the line.”
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