Whitburn boss Matt Coulter reckons side ahead of schedule

Oct 7 2010 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

Whitburn boss Matt Coulter reckons side ahead of schedule

MATTIE COULTER reckons Armadale will come to Central Park as favourites this weekend but the Whitburn manager is determined to show his side can still have a say in the battle for glory this season.

Whitburn have struggled this season following their relegation from the Superleague but Coulter insists it was only to be expected after he was handed the reins of a club with only two players left on the books.

He said: “We are playing in a very tough league and you only have to look at the table to see how close it is.

“We have a game in hand over the rest and if we can win that we can hopefully get some points into that but it will be tough.

“Armadale will be a very tough match for us as they have acquitted themselves well and brought in a lot of players and spent a lot of money. It will be very difficult and we will need to be at our best but we know what we have to do.

“I would say we are probably in a better position than I thought we would be when I took over.

“We only had two players when I took over and we had no money. Since then we have only bought two other players and all the others in the squad have been brought in by us working hard behind the scenes to get enough to try and stay in the league.

“This season I believe the most important thing is to make sure we stay in the Premier League.

“But if we go on a run, and that could be a run of wins or losses, we could find ourselves battling at the top or struggling at the bottom.

“We will need to fight and scrap for every point if we have any ambition and we will need to do it over every single week.”

Whitburn warmed up for the visit of county neighbours Armadale with a 6-0 thrashing of RAF Lossiemouth in the Emirates Junior Scottish Cup.

Andy Thomson scored the opener in some style when he spotted keeper Sam Haltman off his line and duly clipped a 40-yard beauty over his head.

David Martindale added a second before David Murphy made it 3-0 from the penalty spot.

Barry Craig netted the fourth just three minutes into the second-half before Gary Millar fired the fifth on the hour mark.

And 13 minutes from time James Gavin slammed home the sixth to round off the rout.