Cumbernauld Colts boss glad side didn't take foot off the gas at East Stirling

Daily Record

17 hours ago

The Broadwood side enjoyed a comfortable victory to make it three unbeaten in the Lowland League
Cumbernauld Colts boss John Doyle reckons his side were in total control as they led East Stirling 3-0 at half-time on Saturday – but told them not to relax for a minute.
‌
In the end, Colts won 4-0, leaving them fourth in the Lowland League, but Doyle didn't feel able to relax until they bagged the final goal 70 minutes in.
‌
Callum Home had Colts ahead in 19 minutes, doubling that lead 10 minutes later, with Abraham Osemeke bagging the first of his own brace in 37 minutes.
‌
Doyle, whose side drew with Celtic B and Albion Rovers before picking up a win over Hearts B, said: 'We were 3-0 up at half-time, but we warned them that 3-0 is the new 2-0 – I've seen too many teams thinking the game is done, and before they know it, it's 3-3.
'You can't take your foot off the gas in this league, so we had to keep going.
'We expected them to get a rollicking at half-time and try to kick on a wee bit. If they get a goal in the first 20 minutes the game can change.
'It was about making sure we had control of the half. They did change their shape a wee bit about 65 minutes into the game, and we made a couple of subs to change ours, but when we scored the fourth goal we were in total control at that point.
'I'm delighted to go away from home, control the game and get away with a 4-0, and with an important clean sheet, our first of the season.
'It has been a good week, and thankfully we topped it off with a good performance and result.
‌
'I think that was the first time we actually looked like a proper football club and team, in how we played.
'To be 3-0 up at half-time really took the wind out their sails, because they started quite well in the first 15 minutes or so, and it was a wee bit end-to-end, nobody had much of a grip of the game.
‌
'But we relaxed a wee bit, managed to get our foot on the ball, made some passes, and grew into the game.
'We scored two quick goals, which settled us down further, and after that we were 3-0 up at half-time.'
On his scorers, Doyle said: 'We had to take both of them off! Cal had been booked, so we weren't going to take the risk of him being sent off, and Abraham had ran his race on a very hot day.
‌
'The players' energy was excellent, because we asked them to run hard on a hot day, which they did brilliantly.'
There was some bad news, with an injury to St Mirren loan defender Lyle Hunter.
Doyle said: 'We had to play with 10 men for the last bit.
‌
'That's a wee bit of a blow, so we'll need to see how he is. He's full-time at St Mirren, so he's in getting assessed, to see how he's going to be, but we expect probably a couple of weeks.'
Colts visit Bonnyrigg Rose tonight and host Berwick Rangers on Saturday.
‌
Doyle said: 'We're asking the players to recover as best they can, because we put a lot into that game, and now we'll probably end up with a few niggles and injuries, and that's going to test us a bit.
'We'd like to have changed it a bit on Tuesday, but we'll probably have to go with the majority of the same players, unfortunately.
'Bonnyrigg are unknown, they've dropped down from the seniors and you'd expect them to have a bit of quality, and to be there or thereabouts.
‌
'Berwick have had a couple of decent results, so we'll try to do our homework on them, but that's difficult, with Bonnyrigg on Tuesday.
'We'll give the players as much information on the chat as possible.
'But it's a quick turnaround again, we'll be in training one night, but we're at home.
'We can't go into any game expecting three points, so we need to be on it in every single game and the squad is being tested at the moment.'