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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
David Irvine

'If it’s a s*** team' - SK Brann boss on what he would do after St Mirren goal fury

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Furious words were exchanged between the dugouts, players had to be separated on the pitch, and verbal barrages were traded in the media.

It's fair to say the first leg between SK Brann and St Mirren delivered on drama with the hosts' late strike subject to major scrutiny.

In short, Ole Didrik Blomberg had gone down citing a cramp in the final minutes, the St Mirren players believed it was a time-wasting technique and so played on. One minute later a corner for St Mirren eventually results in a Toyosi Olusanya equaliser. Cue angry exchanges all over the park and in the media.

One week on and the flashpoint is still dominating the discussion ahead of the second leg, which raises the question - how would Eirik Horneland instruct his players to proceed if the reverse should transpire this time round.

“What would I do in the same situation? That would depend on the opponents, it's about how the play the game," said the SK Brann boss.

"If it’s a s*** team who just wants to sit down and let the clock run out, if they don’t try to play football, then maybe we do the same.

“But if the opponent tries to attack all the time, to have speed and to play a positive game, I wouldn’t want to do it.


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“We didn’t handle the situation well last week. Our player should have stayed on his feet until the situation was cleared and the goalkeeper shouldn’t have thrown the ball out when he did.

“St Mirren? They tried to score a goal, they scored a goal, so they did well.

“I spoke to Stephen Robinson on our way across the pitch at the end. There was a bit of frustration in the moment, a lot of adrenaline. We got across some straight messages and then it was forgotten the next second."

Norwegian club Brann were in the driving seat for most of the match in Paisley but the late leveller offers St Mirren hope as they travel to the mountainous city of Bergen.

However, Horneland reckons Brann will benefit from home advantage in preferable second-leg circumstances as he backed his squad to progress and eliminate their Paisley opponents.

He said: “We created enough chances to put it to bed last week and could have scored a few more goals, but you have to give it to St Mirren – they fought well and we conceded in the last couple of minutes, so that’s the way football goes.

“Both teams now think they can finish the job. But if could have chosen, I’d definitely have chosen to have the second leg here. 

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