Neilston boss Chris Cameron was relieved to see his side finally shake off their “hangover” from missing out on the Conference C title and end their season with a win.
The Farmer’s Boys took on East Kilbride Thistle at the Brig O’Lea Stadium knowing they were out of the running for top spot.
A painful loss to Petershill last month, who can still win the title from current leaders Drumchapel if they win their last remaining game by two goals or more, saw the Renfrewshire side knocked out of the title race.
A creditable third-place finish still sees Neilston seal promotion to the Championship next season.
And while Cameron wishes they’d been in the hunt for the title until the last day of the campaign, he’s still pleased with the efforts of his side throughout the difficult season.
He told Express Sport: “It was great to end on a victory because we’ve had a bit of a hangover after the Petershill loss.
“If we’d won that game I believe we’d have gone on to lift the title.
“That game was our cup final.
“The confidence we would have got from winning that match would have been huge.
“With a wee bit of luck at a few key points we could have been in the Premier Division next season.
“But unfortunately that’s not the case and it’s been tough knowing we’ve not really had anything left to play for the last few weeks.
“I can’t fault the lads at all though. They’ve been excellent all season.
“It’s been a comfortable third-place finish and we’ve made sure we’re back in the Championship, which was the minimum we were asking for this season.”
With the season not officially over yet as some teams prepare to play catch up, Neilston are already motoring ahead with their plans for their next campaign.
Cameron is anticipating a big step up in quality when they begin life in the Championship this summer.
And he’s already targeting some quality reinforcements to ensure they’re more than ready for the challenge ahead of them.
He said: “We knew whether we’d been in the Premier Division or the Championship next season it was going to be much tougher than the conferences and we’d need to strengthen.
“We’ve signed 12 of the current squad already for next season and we’re hoping to bring in another five or six new faces to freshen things up.
“The vast majority of this squad has been together for about three years now. For the group and the team it’s always a good idea to freshen things up.
“The standard of the league next season is going to be much higher. We’ll be up against the likes of Drumchapel and Petershill every single week, so every single game is going to be tough.
“We’ve got a list of targets that we’ve had our eyes on for a few months and hopefully we can bring four or five of them in.
“If we manage that we’ll be able to adapt our style a wee bit and be more than ready to go when the new season starts.”
The start date of next season remains up in the air, with the conclusion of the WoSFL Premier Division and the World Cup in Qatar in December likely to dictate when the Farmer’s Boys will next be back in action.
Cameron added: “Because the West of Scotland is now linked in to the SPFL pyramid we’re still not sure exactly when we’re starting back up.
“There’s talk about it being earlier than normal, around the middle of June, because of the World Cup.
“That would be ideal as the close season wouldn’t be too long at all for the boys.”
