Saltcoats Victoria open season with win over Carluke Rovers

The Vics picked up a win in their opening match of the West of Scotland Football League (WoSFL) Fourth Division season on Saturday, defeating Carluke Rovers 1-0 away from home.

Last season was a challenging campaign for the Campbell Park side, who finished in last position in the WoSFL's bottom division.

But with a lot of effort being put in both on and off the field, Wilson is hoping for a different outcome this season - his first full campaign in charge.

"We've been in about seven months now," he said. "At the time of coming in it was just about getting a team together and getting guys on the park.

“It’s been tough, but since I’ve come in the committee have been outstanding. Everything I’ve asked for they’ve given us.

“The committee's numbers are up since I came in, from two to about ten now. They’ve worked wonders behind the scenes.

“I can’t complain that way, so I spoke to the players and said 'it’s now our turn to return the favour'.”

And Saturday's win was a great start in doing just that, with David Sawyers' first-half goal proving enough to bring the three points back to North Ayrshire.

The result may have raised a few eyebrows away from Campbell Park, but Wilson says it was a just reward for a challenging pre-season as he prepares his troops for what lies ahead.

"Carluke have been tipped to possibly be chasing promotion," he said, "so going away from home to win there...the boys were outstanding, right from the warm-up.

“I deliberately went hard in pre-season and picked tough teams to play against. We took some heavy defeats but I felt it was good for the players.

“The boys were well tested and I thought it would stand us in good stead.”

And the performance left the Saltcoats boss with a lot of positives to take into their upcoming fixtures.

David Sawyers (middle right) was the match winner. (Image: Saltcoats Victoria)

“We started great," Wilson continued. "We had to defend well, which we did, and then managed to get a goal.

“It wasn’t backs against the wall, either. We could have got another few at the start of the second half.

“The most pleasing thing for me was the clean sheet, because we have been conceding goals.

“The boys fought like mad and had to hang on to the very last minute, so I’m very pleased."

The Campbell Park boss says he's worked hard on changing his players' attitude after seeing Vics finish bottom of the pile last season - but insists he's well aware that one swallow doesn't make a summer.

"We’re not getting carried away with ourselves," he said. "We’ve still got loads of work ahead of us.

“What was annoying me [last season] was the look that we were giving up

"Not that I think any player was doing that, but sometimes the heads go and we go into doing an individual thing instead of coming together and being a team.

“Every time we concede a goal, I say to the players 'we’ll go into a five minute recovery period' – it’s just about basics, mentality, being strong and not giving away another goal.

“It’s about staying in the game and not conceding again, because suddenly it’s 3-0 and the game's done."

And though it's still early days, Wilson says he's optimistic that this message has been instilled in his squad.

"We’ve been competitive in all the games we’ve played," he added. 

"We just need to keep working hard at it.

“If they’re out on the park and giving everything, then I don’t think I could ask for any more. If we’re not good enough on the day, then we’re not good enough on the day.

“We want to make sure we’re staying in the game and that if we're getting beat it's narrow. Some of the goals we conceded last year were pretty ridiculous."

And there's no time for either Wilson or his players to rest on their laurels, with their first home match of the season, against Kello Rovers, coming up at Campbell Park on Wednesday, July 31 (KO 7.30pm).

“We’re just going to try and deal with a game at a time," Wilson added.

"Everything goes into the next game.

“We’ve got to make sure we’re ready for every game. We can’t gamble at our level.

"We’ll be back in at training, forgetting about what happened on Saturday and focussing on Kello.”