It was a very happy New Year for Jeanfield Swifts supporters who made the trip to West Lothian on Saturday afternoon.
The Perth side headed into 2023 with a spring in their step thanks to a deserved 4-2 Premier Division win against Blackburn United.
Swifts actually had to play 70 minutes of this match with 10 players after Ewan Moyes was shown a straight red for what was deemed a last-man challenge.
Thankfully, by that point, Connor McLaren’s double, the first a deflected strike from range and then a clinical header, had opened up a two-goal advantage.
Blackburn would retaliate from the penalty spot before Paul Simpson restored the cushion for a 3-1 half-time lead.
Chris McLeish, who led the line well and took a number of hits across the afternoon, secured the points with a well-worked fourth which had been kick-started by Kieran Sweeney’s accurate long diagonal switch.
The hosts did pull back a consolation – again from the penalty spot – but not enough to stop Swifts’ Hogmanay celebrations starting early.
“We’d asked to move the fixture a month or so ago and Blackburn declined,” manager Ross Gunnion said afterwards.
“We even asked to play it a little earlier but they refused so they were obviously hoping to catch us with our minds elsewhere.
“Given we hadn’t played since early December, I was really pleased with how we started the game.
“Blackburn tried to press us and force us to make mistakes but we shaped up well and played through the press to go one up, then follow it up with an excellent second goal.
“From there we were in control but a hopeful ball and a coming together of Moyes and their number nine brought about a decision to send Ewan off.
“I think everyone in the ground was dumbfounded as the ball was never going to be collected by their striker. At worst it’s a foul, not even a yellow card, but the referee thought otherwise.
“To then get pegged back to 2-1 with a very soft penalty call could have signalled a collapse.
“But the players didn’t let the negative impact of those poor decisions influence them.
“If anything we controlled the game for the remainder of the half and let Blackburn have the ball in areas they couldn’t hurt us. It was a very disciplined and professional performance overall.”
Gunnion was particularly pleased with the discipline and mentality shown by his squad after going down a man.
“Having Connor McLaren, Chris McLeish and Paul Simpson able to create and score the goals they did gives the squad a huge amount of confidence to use the ball and look to play through teams,” Gunnion said.
“And that’s what we did all afternoon through the midfield, full backs and centre halves.
“The ball from Kieran Sweeney for the fourth goal, touch from Paul Simpson and finish from Chris McLeish is as good as you’ll see at any level over the weekend.”
Swifts moved up to second in the Premier Division standings, although remain nine points back of leaders Linlithgow Rose.
