Dave McTiernan: A good win in difficult conditions

The assistant boss offered his thoughts on a scrappy win on Tyneside.

Dave McTiernan praised Redcar Athletic for their ability to adapt to poor weather conditions in a much-needed victory over Whickham.

Goals from Oscar Fletcher and Adam Boyes fired the Steelmen to a first win in four at the First Mortgage Glebe Arena, the driving rain and high winds rendering ‘pretty football’ near unplayable.

Whickham 0-2 Redcar Athletic

Our account of a scrappy win in difficult conditions.

For the assistant boss, stopping the rot was all that mattered.

Whickham came into the game on somewhat of a hot streak, but after three successive league defeats – and an Isuzu FA Vase exit – it was important to finally provide a response.

Dave said: “After a few games without a win, it was much-needed that.”

“It’s a credit to the lads. They fought hard tonight. It was a disciplined performance and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

As far as the performance goes, it wasn’t pretty. But, as McTiernan admitted, it didn’t need to be.

Conditions were certainly stacked up against the two teams, and managing those high winds proved vital to Redcar’s much-needed success.

“I think the performance was better than a lot of people might give us credit for.” Dave McTiernan said.

“It was very windy out there, and the conditions were very difficult. We played those conditions really well.

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“The players that we’ve got are quite savvy in terms of the levels that they’ve played at. You’ve got to be able to adapt to the conditions at hand, and I think the players did that tonight.

“We can play football, but tonight proves that we can also scrap it out as well. We’ve come away to a Whickham side who’ve won the last couple of games, it was a good win on the road.”