Caledonian Braves boss Ricky Waddell says his side could have beat Celtic ‘B’ on Saturday, but he’ll take the point from an incredible 4-4 draw.
And Waddell says his Lowland League side have been “hanging on” throughout a heavy fixtures schedule that has had them down to the bare bones.
A ding-dong battle at Airdrie’s New Broomfield saw Celtic twice take the lead through Ben Quinn and Joey Dawson, with Zac Butterworth and Scott Forrester netting for Braves for a 2-2 interval score.
A Dawson penalty and Jack Brown own-goal saw Celtic race into a 4-2 lead in 67 minutes, but two penalties in as many minutes from Marc Kelly had the game at 4-4 with 13 minutes left.
Waddell said: “I was happy and annoyed in equal measures to take a point, but we went 4-2 down with something like 20 minutes to play, and at the time I thought that if we could salvage something out of the game it would be a positive.
“We managed to do that, and got a point, but I felt that the full game wasn’t a great spectacle, and I felt we were a bit wasteful on the ball, a bit passive.
“In the second half we got a bit closer to Celtic. They had a bit of possession, but I think they were a wee bit annoyed at themselves in terms of their performance as well.
“From a ‘spirit’ point of view, and for our team-work, I really can’t fault the guys.
“It was good to come back, they showed good character to do that, and we got two penalties, but we had to get bodies and everything else in the box for that to happen, so we were putting them under pressure.
“All in all, it was probably a fair result. They had a bit more possession but
we had quite a few chances, so we move on after taking a point, and take it into next week.”
Braves host East Stirlingshire on Saturday, with a trip to Gretna 2008 to follow on Wednesday, and Waddell hopes his players are ready.
“The boys have been really hanging on,” he said. “We’ve had loads of injury concerns and I’m looking forward to an easier week this week.
“I honestly believe we can win against any team in our league, though it’s not as easy as that, of course.
“But for me, I just need to get into training, see where we are injury-wise and hope the boys have come through that heavy schedule.”
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