Strong spirit in St Andrews squad left boss impressed

The players regrouped, some signed extensions to their contracts, and they expressed determination to get out of the hole they’d tumbled into, said boss Craig Morrison – even before they heard they’d be staying up.

Kelty Hearts’ desire to move from the junior game to the East of Scotland set-up meant St Andrews would not be condemned to the North League after all.

The club has now signed highly-rated centre half Stuart McDonald from Glenrothes as it looks to strengthen in key areas, particularly in attack.

Morrison said he was “quite impressed and sort of humbled” by his players’ reaction. “They took it on the chin and there was no one trying to get an easy way out,” he said.

“We always had the drive to go and put our wrongs right and then obviously it was the icing on the cake when we found about not going down.

“It’s not changed the dynamics and it was fortunate that the squad had fully committed anyway.”

United wanted a “challenging pre-season”, added Morrison, and have a number of tough friendly matches lined up.