McGee: We need to rise up the ranks with style
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
NERVES may be jangling up in Thurso as Caithness stand on the brink of promotion to Scotland’s main league structure – but being in this position is what coach Tom McGee has been working for.
The Greens travel to promotion rivals Strathmore knowing that a losing bonus point will be enough to haul them up into the Scottish National League Division Three.
Strathmore can only deny Caithness their day in the sun if they beat them by a convincing points margin and do the same to Glenrothes next week.
Unlikely? Perhaps, but Caithness do not want to leave things to chances as stranger things have happened.
But as far as McGee and Co are concerned, a losing bonus point is something they’re definitely not aiming for – after all, they want to beat Strathmore and go up in style.
McGee said: “How are the nerves? Well it’s all part of the life of a coach. The excitement, the anticipation and the nerves are all part of the game.
“To see the team go out and stand there for 80 minutes as all you plan for in training is put into place on the pitch gives you more than enough excitement.
“There’s an added extra to this game because of what we can achieve at the end of it but it’s no different to any other game we’ve played this season.
“I coach not because I want to have something to do with my free time. No, I coach because I want to win. While a losing bonus will see us up, we want to achieve promotion with a victory at Strathmore.
“Yes one point will do but we want to sprint past the finishing line, not just reach it.
“We are under no illusions though. Strath-more will be a tough team to play against. They have a slim chance of beating us to promotion and they will be doing all they can to grab that chance.”
The Greens
have been in majestic form all season and naturally observers have been wondering what the secret of their success has been?
However, as McGee reveals, there has been no magic formula or revolutionary training routine or special motivational talks.
In fact it is all very simplistic.
He added: “We just simply help the players to work on and development their game in order to achieve success.
“The guys bought into that way of thinking straight away and have given their all both in training and on match days.
“They’ve developed a good spirit amongst themselves which has led to good communication – especially on set-pieces.
“While we’ve won a lot of our games convincingly, those victories have been built on the back of a good, solid defence.
“The best defences always win prizes. Each tackle, turnover and line-out steal has been as important as every try and kick we’ve scored from.”
