Reaction

“The Wasps” returned to the Ladbrokes Championship for Season 2018/19 after “Keeping Believing” and getting their rewards in the end, having dominated the Championship Play-Off Final over the two legs but found themselves behing to Stuart Carswell’s wonder strike in the first leg, until deep into time added on at the end of the second leg when Ross Stewart scored his tenth goal of the season for “The Wasps” since joining them on loan from St. Mirren in the January transfer window.

jim goodwin on clinching promotion back to the championship

We had a great chat on Friday night about the number of times we’ve come back from behind to get results. The one that stood out in all our minds, was three or four months ago when we were a goal down to Forfar in the 88^th minute, then Kevin Cawley equalised and Kris Renton got the winner in the 93^rd minute.

Nine times in all we have came back from losing positions this season, that’s testament to the players character, or call it resilience, call it never say die  spirit, but they’ve got it and I’m over the moon for them because they never stopped going for it, they never know when they are beat. I won’t lie, there were times when I wondered if the goal would come, and I knew time was running out but they just kept on going, I knew they would never stop, but it did and I also knew when it did and we went into extra-time, then we would go on and win, because fitness wise I doubt if there is a fitter part-time team out there,  I think over the two games who got what we deserved.

These boys are a credit every single one of them, the ones that started, the ones who came off the bench and the ones who didn’t make this game, we lost a couple of key players in the build up to the game, that itself was a motivation for the other players. They deserve their celebrations I hope they enjoy their night, we will meet again on Tuesday and we’ll look forward now to next season, when the one thing I can promise is that we won’t go up there and grind out nil-nil results, we’ll go and try and play football.

It was very hard to find space and gaps Dumbarton were very organised they almost play with a back six, so with twenty minutes to go we had to throw caution to the wind and move Andy Graham into the box, if we lost 2-0 or 3-0  at least we had a go and let’s try and win the game.

The winning goal from Jordan Kirkpatrick, it’s just what he is capable of the loan signings I brought in January have definitely worked and made a positive impact to us but I don’t want to single any one player there were so many good performances.

I’m over the moon for everybody connected to the club the board right down to the fans we have a lot of volunteers behind the scenes who really do a great job as well and importantly pleased for the players because you don’t get these kind of experiences often and I hope they cherish the moment tonight and enjoy it.

It’s the best moment of my short managerial career there is no doubt about that, I certainly experienced some good moments as a player but this is different you put an awful lot more into things as a manager, you never stop thinking about the game and I can take a lot of satisfaction but I couldn’t do it without the fantastic staff behind me, help from the board and the chairman it is a real collective effort.

Now going into the Championship I have a good core of players I want to take with me, I will sit down with them next week and make them offers and hope they will want to come with us, we just want to go and play the exact same way, I believe in the players I believe they are good enough to go and take teams on, pass the ball the way we do, it’s the way we train so we wouldn’t look to play any different. We will try and add more quality to the squad, I have already identified one or two whom I have spoken to, we are now a more attractive proposition now going into the Championship.