Star look to get back in action

Jan 24 2013 by Stuart Gillespie, Galloway News

Dalbeattie Star will return to action this weekend when they travel to Newton Stewart in the South of Scotland Challenge Cup.

The two sides met on the opening day of the season and Star took a narrow 3-2 victory and while player/manager John MacBeth is expecting another tough game, he feels his side are performing better now than they were back in July.

He said: “It’s a tough place to go – I’ve been there quite a few times and never had an easy game yet. They ran us close on the opening game of the season so I’m expecting another tough game. We’re playing a lot better now than we were then so we’ll still go into it with confidence.”

Star’s game against Fleet Star was one of many to fall victim to the weather on Saturday and MacBeth is hoping the layoff will allow players with niggling injuries, such as Grant Parker, to recover.

The postponement forced the squad indoors for training, where they were joined by new recruits Graeme Bell and Grant Middlemiss.

“Graeme was happy to sign and we’re happy with the squad now,” said MacBeth. “It gives us plenty of options. He was in training with us and he and Grant have settled in well.

“I’m happy with what we’ve got just now, I’m not actively looking at the moment but you can never say never.

All the boys are happy enough at the moment so I can’t envisage any changes coming up.

“We managed to keep our fitness up with the game being off so that was a nice wee bonus. It’s good to keep ticking over after two good performances, we don’t want to let things slip backwards. We had a good session and had a good laugh so it was good team bonding and let the two new boys get in as well.

“There’s nothing we can do about it so we have to make the best of the situation. It’s frustrating for all the boys, they just want to play football, but we just have to do the best we can.”

While Star were out of action there was a good result for them when St Cuthbert Wanderers beat Threave Rovers.

Threave are still joint top of the league but Star now have three games in hand on their rivals.

MacBeth added: “It was a good result for us. If Threave had won they’d have gone top of the league and it wouldn’t look good for us.

“It’s kept us top and we have three games in hand so I’m quite happy with that.”