Whitburn manager Darren Wilson admitted inexperience and derby day nerves might have played a part in his side’s performance at Volunteer Park, but praised their efforts in coming back to earn a draw, writes Callum McCormack.
The Burnie had to come from 2-0 down in their East of Scotland Conference Division X match up to take a point against their local rivals Armadale Thistle.
Speaking after the game, he said: “I thought we were nervous. We didn't really play our own style, we didn’t pass the ball as well as we usually do. I think when we settled into the game you saw that it was quite clear there were different types of teams that played the game.
“Armadale actually got a really good goal and sometimes you’ve just got to applaud that.”
Wilson praised the attitude of his players for their second half turnaround, but says he feels that age and experience played a part in their performance in the first 45 minutes.
He said: "I spoke to the boys at half-time. One of the things we do is we never give in so we’ve always got the courage and the attitude to know we’re never out of the game depending on what the situation is.
"We’ve done it against Bo’ness where we’ve been one down at half time with 10 men and came back. Armadale are am ageing side and fair play to Derek for pulling these boys in because they are good players, whereas we are young and I felt that inexperience cost us a bit early doors.”
He added: "We went 2-0 down but the never say die attitude we wanted showed. It was a really good finish from Darren for the first and then the second one is a good goal and after that we have five or six chances where we could go maybe go in front but maybe we’ve just lacked that wee bit of composure in the final third.”
The draw leaves a top two finish in their own hands but the gaffer insists the main focus is on continuing to grow and implement their long-term aims for the club.
He commented: "We’re not worried about points, we’re not worried about league tables. Eventually we’d love to win the league but we set out here to get the club back to where they were, to be fighting.
"If someone gave me two games at the end of the season to try and get six points, I’d take that. We’ve got a young group. This isn’t a one year plan, for us it’s about building, we’re building for next season.
"Regardless of what league we’ll be in, we’ll be better. For me it’s about experience.
"It’s all about the boys just having that experience, knowing when to roll their sleeves up, knowing when to put that ball in behind rather than trying to build, but that takes time."
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