Sons’ boss Frank McKeown was delighted with our home form after we recorded a convincing 3-0 victory over The Spartans at The Rock.
The victory ensured that our impressive record at the Rock continued, with McKeown highlighting the consistency we have shown since the loan window closed in February.
“I am delighted with home form. I think from February, since the loan window closed, I think we’ve had 11 home games. We’ve won seven of those and drew two, so we’ve only lost two in seven and a half months, which is a phenomenal record at home.
“We need to fix our away form, no doubt about that, but at home it’s another clean sheet. I thought the boys were fantastic, really proud of them.”
There was a debut clean sheet for Rangers loanee Mason Munn, making his debut after the departure of Harry Broun and injury to Aidan Rice, on loan from the Gers’ Old Firm rivals Celtic.
McKeown revealed that Broun had found last weekend’s events difficult and had ultimately decided to step away from football for the time being.
“Harry Broun had a really difficult afternoon last weekend,” Frank revealed.
“I spoke to Harry over a number of occasions and he’s really took it really hard in terms of his mistake, unfortunately.
“I know that there was a lot of social media content and things like that and I tried to keep Harry here, but he’d made his decision in the summer to leave football and I asked him to come back in and give us a hand and, to be fair, he did that.
“However, he’s took a little dent in terms of his confidence and no matter how much time I tried to convince him to come back to the club, he’d just made up his mind, unfortunately, following last week.
“So, credit to Harry, he’s a fantastic character, fantastic goalkeeper and, obviously, I had to go and make that decision and, obviously, Mason came into the club this week and done fantastic today.
“First game, first clean sheet and, along with Tom Lang, Ali Omar, Tommy Robson and [Mikey] Doyle, they were fantastic at the back.”
There was, however, a concern for us during the victory, with McKeown revealing that Tommy Robson appeared to have suffered a hamstring injury.
“It looks like Tommy tore his hamstring,” the gaffer continued, “and then I’m missing Ali, now he’s on international duty and we need to be careful with Tom [Lang] as well.
“So, three out of my back four won’t be available for Tuesday night, it looks like, and then I know, we’ve got the two KDM Cup games in a row, so, hopefully, everyone comes back for the following week.”
The midweek fixture with Kilmarnock B, and the following clash with Highland League side Banks O’ Dee will provide an opportunity for some of our younger players to gain valuable minutes, although McKeown admitted that balancing development with maintaining momentum can be difficult.
“Yeah, that is really difficult as a manager, you’re trying to weigh that up, you’re trying to give people minutes and things like that, but also you’re trying to build the momentum as well.
“As I said, Ali Omar, I wish him all the best, he’s been a fantastic footballer. First of all, he’s a top footballer, but he’s a really good friend, delighted with his international call-up [for Somalia.]
“On Tuesday night we can maybe get some people some game time, I was hoping that Tom and Ali would be there to try and build that relationship, we’ve not really been able to have that.
“I was speaking to the Elgin manager last week and he says he’s made one change in six games, unfortunately I’ve not had that luxury, so I’m hoping to get this group a bit more game time, a bit more relationship building and start building those building blocks.”
There was plenty for McKeown to be pleased with in attack, with Derryn Lang opening the scoring early on and Leighton McIntosh operating in a deeper role.
The manager explained that the attacking combination had been a focus throughout the week in training.
“Yeah, I think that front four, we worked on it all week, the managers dream that goal we’ve worked on all week in training, Robbie Cleary coming in, Doyle getting down the side, Deryn Lang getting across.
“I thought Leighton and Lang were excellent today, I thought the whole team were phenomenal.
“I just think that Leighton and Deryn are going to cause most defences problems in this league, and when you’ve got the two of them on the pitch, people don’t want to play against them, the two are fantastic footballers.
“Scott Honeyman and Cleary were excellent and I thought Josh Todd and David Craig in the middle of the pitch were excellent as well.
“Getting that experience back, Todd really made a difference today, really calm on the ball.”
McKeown also reserved praise for the players who came off the bench, with Josiah Sowa getting on the scoresheet with a stunning late effort as we completed a 3-0 victory, with the Queen’s Park loanee netting his first senior goal in front of his onlooking family.
“I’ve got to give a mention to the subs, seeing the subs came on I thought they were fantastic, Josiah’s goal was excellent but you see the quality of Own Hartington earlier on in the move and Kai Kirkpatrick. Tony Wallace was brilliant as well.
“I’m really delighted for the boys coming off the bench and they’re going to keep pushing to get into that starting XI.”