U20s boss Stephen Craigan was happy with his youngsters win in the Development League this afternoon but admitted they didn’t quite hit their heights.
A 3-0 victory over Dundee United in Forfar this afternoon means the young Steelmen have now scored sixteen goals in their last three matches and sit second in the league – four points behind leaders Hibs.
Speaking to MFC TV at full time, Craigan admitted it wasn’t the best game, but the performance was “professional”.
He said: “I think if we’re honest it wasn’t the best of games.
“And without being overly critical of the surface it was a bit sticky, a bit dry, and I think sometimes when you play on astroturf you expect the pitch to have a bit of grease on it and the ball will move a little bit quicker.
[pullquote]When you come away from home sometimes you need a professional performance and we defended reasonably well – Jordan had a really good save early on in the game.[/pullquote]
“But like I said it was a bit stop-start, a bit sticky and the ball got caught under people’s feet.”
He added: “When you come away from home sometimes you need a professional performance and we defended reasonably well – Jordan had a really good save early on in the game.
“Apart from that we didn’t really feel tested – there wasn’t an awful lot in the game but I just felt going forward we had a little bit more than they did.
“It certainly wasn’t one for the purists, and I think the boys are still adapting and learning how to play on a Sunday and then a Wednesday and how they recover in that time but if you’d told me before we came up here that we’d win 3-0 I’d have been delighted.”
With the quick succession between games, Craigan hailed his sides ability to keep battling towards the final few minutes and grab late goals in the manner they did.
He also praised the players who came in to the team.
[pullquote]We managed to freshen things up a bit from Sunday with David Ferguson and Lee Lucas coming in to the team, having a trialist in and Tom Fry coming back in to the team so it just kind of reenergises you a bit.[/pullquote]
He said: “We managed to freshen things up a bit from Sunday with David Ferguson and Lee Lucas coming in to the team, having a trialist in and Tom Fry coming back in to the team so it just kind of reenergises you a bit.
“At the start of the game, having had a two hour bus journey up here, there’s a lot of sitting around and you tend to start these games a little bit slower but once we got control of the game and got a foothold in it we looked better.”
He added: “Considering we went a month without games and then had two in four days was always going to be a test for them.
“We have a game on Monday against Hamilton so they’ll get a rest for that but it’s all a learning curve.
“I’m pleased we got the two late goals and Dylan Falconer was a bit unlucky to start but we had to give the chance to our trialist so it was good for Dylan to come on and get a goal.”