Albion Rovers 3 Cumbernauld Colts 3: Clark tells Rovers to show no fear this season after battling derby draw

Daily Record

2 days ago

The sides fought out a six-goal thriller at Cliftonhill in their Lowland League opener
Albion Rovers boss Sandy Clark has told his side to show no fear and just go out and play this season in the Lowland League.
‌
Rovers kicked off their Lowland League campaign with a 3-3 draw at home to Cumbernauld Colts, in what was a ding-dong battle at Cliftonhill.
‌
Liam Allison put Colts ahead in 26 minutes, but Lancelot Pollard levelled on the stroke of half-time.
‌
Aiden McLaughlin restored Colts' lead in 72 minutes, with Tony Garth cancelling that out eight minutes later.
Jack Devlin thought he had won it for the visitors in 88 minutes, only for on-loan Kilmarnock kid Grant Marchant to pop up with a last-gasp equaliser.
Clark said: 'I think probably at the end of the day a draw was fair. It was great spirit from us to come back three times and showed great character.
'One thing about being young and inexperienced is that you shouldn't have any fear, just go and play, do the best you can, and the lads did that.
'When you look back at the game and the summer that we've had – a good example is Cumbernauld Colts took three of our better players from last season – and we're dealing with a very low budget, that makes them big-time favourites to win the game.
‌
'But that wasn't our approach to the game. The lads we've brought in are very young, but they've worked really hard, and played well in the game.
'We certainly deserved to get the points, that's for sure. Could it have been all three? Maybe, but I think Cumbernauld Colts will be disappointed that they scored with two minutes to go and we managed to get the point.
'I'm disappointed with the goals we lost, because they're cheap, but that's what happens.
‌
'The goals we scored were good quality, and good play from us, and that pleases me enormously.
'It's credit to the lads, coming back three times against an experienced team speaks volumes for their character, and hopefully that's a good sign.'
‌
Rovers continue their campaign with a trip to East Stirlingshire tonight and visit Tranent on Saturday.
Clark said: 'I don't know why the Lowland League do this, but they batter games in early in the season and finish in the middle of April, but that's nothing to do with me, that's the way it works.
'When you haven't got a big squad, playing midweek games becomes challenging, but every game we play is going to be exceptionally difficult this year.
‌
'But we showed enough on Saturday to know that if we work hard we'll get lucky at the right times, and we'll need to do the same against East Stirling and Tranent.'
Clark is still looking to add to his squad, having only had four outfield players available on Saturday.
‌
He said: 'Tylar Denholm wasn't available and Alan Reid was suspended, so we have another two back in, and that helps.
'Grant Marchant is on loan from Kilmarnock and only trained with us once or twice.
'The collaboration agreement we have with Kilmarnock means we can still bring in at least one other player from them, so we have room to manoeuvre a little bit.
'But it's important not to dive in, and to sign the right players.
'The collaborative agreement could be useful for both sides, but the fact we don't have to pay for the players is a huge bonus for us.
'To be fair to Kilmarnock, we've dealt with them for the last couple of years with loans, and they've been very helpful, financially, with us. The agreement suits us, and hopefully it will suit them.'