The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Coach Stewart is given ‘real hope’ of Meigle pulling off great escape
Iain Stewart, Meigle’s head player-coach, believes his team’s neversay-die attitude can be the key to top-flight survival.
The Perthshire side threw themselves a lifeline with a remarkable win over fellow strugglers RH Corstorphine last Saturday and, although they were unable to create a shock against leaders Heriots the following day, Stewart remains confident of his side’s prospects.
With just three games remaining, Meigle face a daunting challenge at home to second top Carlton today, before visiting Grange next week and finishing off at home to a Stewart’s Melville team who are now bottom of the table.
Stewart said: “The win against Corstorphine gives us a real chance and especially because of the manner of it.
“We were out of it with both bat and ball but managed to produce amazing fightbacks to get over the line.
“The boys were really buzzing after it, and it’s the togetherness of this squad and the refusal to throw in the towel that gives me real hope for the remaining games.”
Stewart paid special tribute to veteran batsman Peter Drummond whose dogged 36 helped Meigle recover from 9-3 to post what proved to be a winning 186.
He added: “Peter played exactly the sort of innings that the situation demanded. I think he took something like 29 balls to get off the mark and was under all sorts of pressure from the opposition. But I’ve never met a cricketer who is as mentally strong as Peter.
“The test against Carlton will be another really tough one – they are Scottish T20 champions and have fantastic players. No one expects us to win but we will back ourselves.”
Meigle are without the influential Majid Rasheed but Jamie Morrison comes in.
Elsewhere, Arbroath skipper Marc Petrie is looking for a big end to the season after his side moved into the top half of the table with last week’s victory against Watsonians.
Today they head to the capital to face third top Grange and Petrie said: “We have three massive games to finish the season and there is no better test for us than against Grange.
“We showed a lot more fight and character against Watsonians and it was a lot more like us than our performance against Carlton the previous day. We’re really looking forward to going to Grange and playing on arguably the best ground in the country.”
While Petrie was disappointed with the team performance against Carlton, he absolved debutant Pranav Saravanan from any criticism after the teenager marked his topflight bow with an excellent 46.
Petrie added: “Pranav was excellent. It was an innings full of maturity and class, a very exciting prospect for the club.
“He bowls useful off spin as well so is a valuable option with both bat and ball.”