Peterhead take on Rangers at Balmoor for a second time this season on Sunday and Blue Toon skipper Scott McLaughlin is hoping that his men do not drop points this time to a ‘horrible, horrible’ goal.
The former Livingston, Morton, Airdrie United, Ayr United and Queen of the South player looked to have got Peterhead’s season off to a flier when he shot home from the edge of the box to put them 2-1 up in Rangers’ first ever Third Division game however, Andrew Little forced the ball in from less than an inch out in the closing seconds to tie the scores.
McLaughlin said: “I almost scored the winner against Rangers live on Sky Sports which would have been a pretty good claim to fame. I was dying for the final whistle after scoring with something like 8 minutes to go.”
“My family are all huge fans of Celtic and I sure they would have been chuffed for me to score against their rivals. I would have been on free everything for the rest of my life, however Andrew then scored the scrappiest goal ever.”
The 28-year-old said: “People keep on telling me it was a horrible, horrible goal to lose and it was, but a goal is a goal. To be honest I wish Rangers had scored a wonder goal from 40 yards as that might have made the blow a bit softer.”
McLaughlin last spoke to the SFL Newsletter back in October 2010 when he was with Ayr United and combining playing with working alongside former Scotland player Andy McLaren in a programme designed to keep youngsters off the streets and playing football.
Despite moving his football club from the south-west to the north-east McLaren is still involved saying: “I am still working with Andy at A + M and it is a good job and we are growing all the time. A couple of the Peterhead boys, Ryan McCann and Robbie Winters, are there as well. We have other players involved like Iain Russell from Livingston as well as guys who have left the game in Jose Quitongo and Gary McSwegan.
“It is good to have so many ex-pros and current pro’s working with the kids and everything is going well just now.”
Last season McLaughlin was a Doonhamer in the First Division and now he is in the Third Division with the Blue Toon and he was asked about the change and he said: “It has been different for me due to being full time and moving to part-time for the first time especially as I live in Paisley and Peterhead is a far trek away. We do one training session down here and one session up there so it is not if we are travelling all the time.”
“The travelling is not as bad as I thought it would be when I signed for Peterhead and to be fair it is a great bunch of lads at the club. That makes things a lot easier.”
McLaughlin added: “I was used to being a full timer and I was one for over 10 years apart from a spell at Ayr which was a combination of both full and part-time so it has been a change. Just over a year ago I was scoring for Queen of the South against Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup and playing in the First Division and now I am facing Rangers in the Third Division. That shows you how much things have changed in just a year.”
There are only good wishes towards his former club with McLaughlin saying: “Queen’s have been flying all season and I am delighted to see Allan Johnston doing as well as he is a good guy that deserves to be successful.”
Another manager McLaughlin wants to be successful is Jim McInally as he explained: “The manager I have at Peterhead is a guy I respect. I worked with Jim for three and a half years at Morton earlier in my career. He took me from Livingston, initially on loan, and I enjoyed working with him so much that I stayed on permanently.”
“I have always had a good relationship with Jim and hence why I am now working with him again at Peterhead.”
Last Saturday’s goalless draw with Queen’s Park was a return to Hampden for McLaughlin, who was a winner there in March 2004 in the CIS Cup Final against Hibs, when he came on as a substitute for David Hay’s Livingston with 10 minutes left for David McNamee.
“The Hibs game was my second last visit as the last time I was here before the Queen’s game was a Scottish Cup semi-final a couple of weeks after the Hibs Final against Celtic,” said McLaughlin before adding, “Unfortunately we lost that game 3-1.”
“Those games were very different to the Queen’s Park one as they had 45,000 and then over 50,000 at them as opposed to 800.”
The game with the Spiders made it a win, a draw and a loss for McLaughlin at the National Stadium and he knows his side were happy to pick up a point in the goalless encounter saying: “We could not get near Queen’s Park in the first half and we had too many players not closing down their players. The second half was a lot better and we passed the ball around with much more confidence.”
After playing the Third Division’s second placed side Peterhead are taking on the top placed side this weekend and McLaughlin said: “This is a massive game for the club and indeed the town of Peterhead. A lot of local people who may not normally go to our games will come out because Rangers are in town which is great for us.”
“The atmosphere on the opening day of the season was terrific and that was new to a lot of the boys so it was great for them to experience that.”
Rather than be fazed with the atmosphere McLaughlin is looking forward to what Sunday brings saying: “It is a game we are looking forward to as it is almost like a free one as no-one expects us to do anything. Having Rangers in the league has given the Third Division a lift and I reckon that lots of players who maybe did not fancy this league before have looked at it and wanted to be part of it.”
“You gain great experience playing against Rangers and it certainly helped me earlier in my career when I played against them 8 or 9 times for Livingston. When I was a player there I was good at filling in spaces so we went to Ibrox and had the one man up front I would be utilised to fill the gap that was created between the strikers and midfield.”
McLaughlin will gladly pass that experience on saying: “I can use experiences like that to help in Sunday’s game and Robbie is a very experienced player as well.”
Despite the Ibrox side almost being out of sight in the race for the Title McLaughlin reckons that there is still plenty to play for in a very competitive league.
McLaughlin said: “Rangers may well be leading by a huge distance but the rest of the league is a great league of 9 teams. There is no stand out team apart from Rangers and we are all much of a muchness so there is a lot of competition for the fans to enjoy.”
“You tend to get goals in every game and there should have been goals in our game with Queen’s Park at both ends as we missed good chances in the second half.”
The Balmoor player added: “There is not one game where you can say right we will win this one no problem. That is a good thing as when you start thinking like that your standards will slip.”
McLaughlin only has one gripe saying: “The only complaint I have with the Third Division is that everywhere seems a fair distance from Paisley where I still live. However if that is what you need to do to play football you enjoy, well that is what you need to do.”
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