Irons hails Gretna performance

Gutted Gretna boss Davie Irons couldn’t hide his disappointment after Sunday’s narrow defeat to Celtic.

The Black and Whites were just four minutes from glory before late goals from Chris Killen and Scott McDonald turned the game on it’s head.

But amongst all the emotions Irons praised his side for their battling display and believes they can take great heart out of their performance against the Champions.

“I am very frustrated and disappointed,” he said. “But I am also proud of those players - we’ve shown once again that we can compete in the SPL.”

“As the clock ticked on, I was sure we would take something from the game. I thought we had something, I really did.”

“The boys were magnificent, we know we’re not the best football side, we’ve not got the best players in the league but on the day our effort and commitment was there for everybody to see.”

“If we are going to achieve anything this season it will be through sheer hard work and endeavour and they certainly showed that today. I really feel for the lads that they didn’t come away with anything for their efforts.”

“But I don’t think we are too far away and if we continue to play like this we will be able to win a lot more games. We have Inverness and St Mirren coming up and those fixtures may have more of an impact on where we finish.”

“It was tough getting ahead for half-time and I warned them it would be harder in the second-half.”

“Celtic and Rangers often win games late on and credit to them for doing it - but it kills me. At 1-1, I’d have been happy with a point and I still felt they had not given our defence too many problems.”

“We were superb at the back and Chris, Craig, Danny and Evan were all outstanding. They battled hard and won 80% of their challenges. The midfield in front of them worked their socks off and Greg Fleming has not had too many saves to make either.”

“We were disciplined and the game plan was working a treat until late on.”