Vale of Leithen hoping to get third time lucky in league after cup exit

They host Fife’s Inverkeithing Hillfield Swifts at their Victoria Park home ground in Innerleithen this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 2.30pm, and Wilson is hoping to see them get off the mark after losing their opening two sixth-tier matches following their relegation from the Scottish Lowland Football League at the end of last season.

The gaffer wasn’t happy with either of those displays – a 5-2 home defeat by West Lothian’s Broxburn Athletic on the opening day of the season at the end of last month and a 10-0 thumping at Linlithgow Rose last Tuesday night – but he was heartened by an improved showing against former fifth-tier rivals Bo’ness United on Saturday in the second round of the East of Scotland Qualifying Cup.

The Borderers, reduced to ten men by a second-half red card for Kyle Mitchell for a last-man foul, lost that home cup tie 2-0, thanks to goals by Dan Watt and Jamie Hamilton, but Wilson says he was encouraged by his players’ reaction to their double-figure humiliation four days previously by a side beaten 1-0 at home by Musselburgh Athletic at the weekend.

“United are a decent side – they were top of the Lowland League until after Saturday’s games – and we competed with them,” he said.

“After our last midweek result, which I don’t really want to talk about, we needed a reaction – we needed a bit more steel – to give us a bit more confidence, and I think we showed that.

“We changed tactics a wee bit to make us a bit more hard to break down.

“Again, a couple of mistakes killed us, but it was a lot better performance than on the Tuesday.

“I was happy with some stuff but not happy with other things.”

Looking back at last midweek’s game at Rose’s Prestonfield Stadium, Wilson said: “Last Tuesday was horrendous.

“It was the most embarrassed I’ve felt in football. I was ashamed.

“I’d told the players before and at half-time ‘this is how we’re going to play, this is what they’re going to do, so this is what we need to do’, but they just didn’t do it.

“It was just the players. I’m not going to throw them under the bus because Saturday was good, but they just didn’t perform.

“I think maybe the occasion got to them because there were around 500 people there, so I don’t know if they maybe got a bit of stage fright because they are quite young still, and with the teams we’ve been up against – Broxburn, Linlithgow and Bo’ness – I don’t think any other team in the division had a harder week than us.

“It just was not acceptable, though. I’ve never been beaten like that in my life and I never want it to happen again. It was just tragic.

“It was, all round, just a horrible day.

“I’ve never felt so low in football as after that. You start questioning yourself. You start questioning if what you’re doing is right.”

He’s confident happier days lied ahead, however, saying: “It’s a work in progress and results haven’t been good, but we’re getting there. We’re just trying to get consistency.

“I can see progress every single day and we’re beginning to click together. It’s just going to take a little bit of time.

“With the players we’ve got and the standard we’re at, we can compete in this league. It’s about consolidating and kicking on from there.

“It’s just about keeping on going and keeping on working.”

Wilson is continuing the recruitment drive under way at Victoria Park since he took over in March, and stepped up over the summer, following the loss of goalkeeper Dean Beveridge to a suspected rotator cuff injury sustained on Saturday and left-back Callum Mitchell being ruled out for up to four months by work commitments.

He’s already signed up former Kennoway Star Hearts midfielder Craig Brand, now appointed as team captain, on a two-year deal and is hoping to make further additions soon.

“Craig is a fantastic footballer,” said Wilson.

“He’s a good lad and he just wants to win, and I’m hoping that rubs off.

“There’s still recruitment that’s got to be done and there are still changes that need to be made.”