Penicuik boss Lewis Coult hopes Dunbar win can kickstart season

“If they want to keep doubting me, I’ve got no problem with that.”

Archie Roue earned the man of the match award for Penicuik [Pic: Penicuik Athletic]

Penicuik Athletic boss Lewis Coult hopes their 3-2 win away to Dunbar United can give his side the confidence to kick on in the East of Scotland Premier Division.

Coult’s side were without a league win since August but took all three points in Saturday’s clash away to 2nd place Dunbar, with midfielder Archie Roue netting a stunning late winner to cap a thrilling contest.

Former Cowndenbeath striker Coult has come under pressure from sections of the Penicuik support due to their run of form, but he’s hopeful Saturday’s win can kickstart their season.

“I said to the boys at the start of the season that there was going to be lots of ups and downs, it’s a transitional period for the club, and for the boys,” said Coult.

“The result on Saturday was a massive three points, and I thought it was totally deserved for the effort the boys put in. It was a fantastic winning goal from Archie. The guy has done incredibly well, he’s dropped a lot of weight and now he’s getting the benefits from that, he’s getting about the pitch well. If the ball was to fall to anyone outside the box, Archie would be one of the names I’d love the ball to drop.

“I think we’ve been unlucky with a lot of our results. We know how good Dunbar are. They’ve had a fantastic start to season, Kevin Haynes and Gary Small have done really well, so we knew how hard it was going to be, but we knew if we competed with them and soaked up a lot of the pressure, then we could hit them on the counter, and that’s exactly what we did and that’s what got us the three points at the end of the day.

“As soon as we scored, maybe against the run of play, they went flat and forced a lot of things which played into our hands. We brought on a couple of subs with big Paul Thomson, who was fantastic, and Liam Coogan came on for [Cameon] Dawson – we did really well.

“A lot of the times over the past few months I have had to rely on youngsters to go on and change the game, but you can’t fast track kids’ progress, you need to give them experience and I’ve been looking for them to change the game, which is unfair, they need time to develop.”

Coult continued: “The players deserved the three points, and it lifts the whole club again which I’m absolutely delighted about.

“They [the fans] are totally entitled to their opinion, I know how big a job this is. I know how big a club Penicuik is and I know how much it means to the fans. Nobody expects more than myself, I expect results, but I have got to understand as well, that I came into a club where it wasn’t stable at the time, we stabilised it, people wrote us off to be relegated at the start of the season and we are now sitting eight in the league. If they want to keep doubting me, I’ve got no problem with that.”