Kirkcaldy & Dysart boss Conrad Courts puts right first half 'formation mistake' in sensational style

Conrad Courts led K & D into semi-finals after poor start at Lochore Welfare last weekendConrad Courts led K & D into semi-finals after poor start at Lochore Welfare last weekend
Conrad Courts led K & D into semi-finals after poor start at Lochore Welfare last weekend
Kirkcaldy & Dysart gaffer Conrad Courts has admitted he was wrong to go with a new ‘three at the back’ system in a poor first half of last Saturday’s Alex Jack Cup quarter-final at Lochore Welfare which saw the YM trail 2-0 at the interval.

But – after some stern words from Courts, a formation change and the introduction of half-time subs Finlay Shearer and Keane Whittet - K & D stormed back to win 4-2 thanks to a Shearer hat-trick and a Jack Wilson strike, with the final two goals coming in injury time.

"I have to take responsibility for us going 2-0 down,” Courts told the Fife Free Press. “Because I have to’d and fro’d with changing the shape a few times this season.

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"It just so happens I did it on Saturday. I changed to a back three and it just didn’t work. It caused confusion and was why we didn’t play so well.

Finlay Shearer scored a second half hat-trick for Kirkcaldy & DysartFinlay Shearer scored a second half hat-trick for Kirkcaldy & Dysart
Finlay Shearer scored a second half hat-trick for Kirkcaldy & Dysart

“I was kind of hoping that we would have got in at half-time just 1-0 down but they scored just on half-time to make it 2-0.

"We then changed the shape back to our original shape – 4-2-3-1 – that the players are quite familiar with this season, changed a couple of players as well and had a few choice words at half-time.

"We got an early goal in the second half and basically we dominated it. There maybe could have been another couple of goals for us but we could have been another couple down in the first half.

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"When it was 2-1 for them we got a goal chopped off for offside and when that happened I wasn’t sure if it was going to be our day.

“But I knew with the fact that there were still 10 minutes left, I was still confident that we could go on and win the game because we had dominated it that much.”

K & D now face a cup semi-final at their EoSFL first division rivals Edinburgh South, on a date still to be decided.

Courts added: "We played Edinburgh South earlier this season and won 3-1 so this is obviously another opportunity for us to progress into a final.

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“Because we’ve got quite a young team, some of the players have maybe not experienced a semi-final.

"So it will be a good experience for them.

"We are on a bit of a rollercoaster so far this season but on our day we’re more than capable of beating most teams in our league.”

Tenth-placed K & D make a league trip to eighth-placed Arniston Rangers this Saturday with kick-off at 2.30pm.

Courts said: “We definitely need to get a bit more consistency in the league.

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"We have only lost three games all season and it just so happens that they’ve all been league games.

"The teams that we’ve been beaten by – Bo’ness Athletic, Crossgates and Camelon – are all teams that are the top three teams in the league.

"There is not really any disgrace in getting beaten by those teams but now we are coming up against the teams that are round about us and below us so we kind of need to start picking up ponts.”

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