Shotts boss hails "massive achievement" after promotion to West of Scotland Premier Division

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Shotts gaffer John McKeown hailed his promotion-winning squad for their “massive achievement” in taking the club up to the top flight in the West of Scotland Football League.The Hannah Park club, who were tipped by some to be relegation strugglers this term, have punched above their weight and competed with sides on far bigger budgets, giving the likes of big-spending champions Drumchapel United and second-place Johnstone Burgh a run for their money all season.Their success in cup competitions left them with a huge fixture backlog but, having crammed in six games over the space of a fortnight, they are celebrating a job well done after Saturday’s 3-2 victory at Blantyre Victoria sealed their promotion from the First Division with two games to spare.“I’m really proud of them,” McKeown beamed. “They were brilliant and just to get over the line now is a relief as well, after all the games we’ve had recently.

They thoroughly deserve it and it is good to do it with a couple of games to spare.“Going away to Rutherglen Glencairn, then Kilbirnie and Blantyre in a week and winning all three of them was just massive.

I think it shows you how good a team we have here and how much character we’ve got because these are hard places to go, so I’m delighted after a season of hard graft.“It was energy-sapping in that sunshine on Saturday after all the games we had in a week, but it was a good day for it.

All the players’ families were there and there were great celebrations at the end.“We had a good night on Saturday. We went back to one of the sponsors’ pubs in Uddingston and this weekend we are going to have a celebration in the social club at Shotts as well.”It took an Ally Martin penalty midway through the second half to make sure of