The Juniors Interview: Craig Crawford, Wishaw Juniors

Name: Craig Crawford

Age: 28

Club: Wishaw Juniors

Previous Clubs: Queen of the South (S-form), Motherwell (pro-youth), Ayr United, Queens Park, Carluke Rovers, Annan Athletic, Forth Wanderers

You are perhaps best known in the junior ranks for your six-year spell at Forth. Was it difficult to leave, and why did you decide to join Wishaw?

I just fancied a new challenge to be honest. I'd been at Forth for a while and had plenty of chances to try and get Forth out of the 2nd division, which we came very close to on a number of occasions but never actually got there.

From playing against Wishaw, I knew that they had a new manager, a new set-up and that's what tempted me; a fresh challenge to try and get Wishaw out of the 2nd division.

You mentioned the manager John McKeown, who has been linked with a number of jobs in the junior game recently. Just how good a job is he doing at Wishaw?

A fantastic job. Before John came on board Wishaw were probably one of the worst teams in Scottish football. They were always around the bottom of the 2nd division.

John's came in and taken over, brought brand new faces in, and he works really hard with the committee to raise money in order to spend it on players and facilities for the team.

He's been linked with a lot of jobs because I think people can see the way he wants his team to play football, and it's a great way to play. He conducts himself really well too. I think he's done an outstanding job and hopefully this is the year that we get the team out of the 2nd division for the first time in 70 years.

What would it mean to the players and the club as a whole to earn promotion?

For the club it's absolutely massive. The committee, who have been at the club a long time, are constantly talking about getting out of the league and looking forward to trying something different because they're just used to being in the 2nd division.

In terms of the players, we're all desperate to get out of the league because we know that we can compete with teams who are supposedly better than us, because we've done that in years gone by. We beat Auchinleck [Talbot] in the West of Scotland Cup last year so we know we can compete with the better teams; it's just about getting ourselves out of the league. We're all going to do whatever we can to achieve that.

Do you agree that the 2nd Division is stronger than ever this season?

I think that it is probably the strongest year that I've ever played in this league. You can tell just by looking at the league table and the results. When you look at the fixtures you just cannot put your finger on who is going to win a game and who is going to lose.

It's very competitive, and I think it's one of the best performing leagues when you look at the 2nd division teams going into the Scottish Cup and handling themselves very well against opposition who are in better leagues.

Do you think Wishaw can win the division, or does promotion remain the main aim?

I think at the beginning of the season we would have bitten your hand off to get promoted. Then with the start we had, we thought that winning the league would be something that we could achieve.

We've had a couple of bad results where we thought we should have got points, which has put Blantyre [Victoria] in a strong position now to go on and win the league. So, our main focus now is just to get promoted whether that be in 1st, 2nd or 3rd, as long as we get promoted that's all we care about. Although winning the league would be nice!

You haven't played a competitive game in a while due to postponements, are you worried that might affect your momentum?

No we're not worried at all. We've been in training twice a week as normal over the festive period, and John and the committee have been working hard to get us plenty of friendlies to keep our match sharpness up.

We've performed well in the friendlies, we played last Saturday against a team that is near the top of the league above us [Dunipace] and drew 2-2. So everyone's looking sharp and I don't think the time off will affect us at all.

Given the number of postponements you've had, what are your thoughts on the argument for junior football to be moved to the summer?

I think financially it would be much better for the junior game to move to a summer league, because the games are going to be on and there would be fans turning up that wouldn't normally come out in the winter.

As a player, I don't really see too much of a difference between playing in summer and winter, because we end up playing so many games in the summer that had been called off in the winter, and you're playing on rock solid parks. As much as it looks great to play in the summer, people don't realise how solid the parks are and how hard it is to play on them, so it's not always as good as it looks.

As well as the more experienced players at Wishaw, there is a crop of really exciting youngsters coming through. Are there any players that you think will go on to have a big future in the game?

Definitely. Nicky Moore who plays up front is really strong, has a great eye for goal and has done really well this season. He's been on trial with Alloa before and I think he could definitely make the step up.

You've got Paul Woodlock, a winger who's very tricky on the ball and can go past players as if they're not there. I think he could handle himself.

Then you've got young Barry Elly, I think this is his first season in junior football and even though he hasn't been playing every game, when he has played he's always done himself justice and is always in the frame for being picked on a Saturday. Given a couple of years' experience in the juniors, I think all of these guys could make the step up.

Finally, from a personal perspective, do you see yourself staying at Wishaw to help them climb the divisions, or do you still harbour ambitions at a higher level?

At 28 I'm still feeling that I could do a job at a level above me. Of course it would be great to move to a club in a higher position, but at this moment in time I just want to get Wishaw promoted.

Next year if we do get promoted, we'll have something to build on, a better squad, and I think it could continue on for a few years. But my eyes are open. What happens next year is just going to depend on what happens this year!