Manager post Casablanca

Back in Agadir after a three hour delay at Casablanca Airport on Thursday morning Jimmy Calderwood talked about the 3-1 victory over Raja Casablanca.

“It was a great occasion for everybody; older players, young players and for Jimmy Nicholl and myself. We have done a lot but it was an exciting stadium, you look at it Dunfermline the first Scottish team in 30 years to come to Morocco with the little band of 20 supporters in amongst 20,000 people it was tremendous.

“The pitch wasn’t very good, for such an impressive stadium the grass was long, but the standard of the second goal was superb.

“When we went 1-0 ahead I didn’t think we deserved it. Big Marco kept us in the game a couple of times with some great saves and then we gave a goal away. A little slip from Andrei which is unusual for him, and so we went in 1-1.

“Second half we made a couple of changes and the longer the second half went on the better it got. The last 15 to 20 minutes they just couldn’t get the ball off us. The crowd were cheering and it was nice to watch. They obviously liked Chris McGroarty because he is an exciting kind of player who goes past people. It probably didn’t suit him because the grass was that long he couldn’t really get away from them. Normally he would glide past players and he is away.

“The Moroccans are skilful footballers and Raja are a very very good team. We stepped our tempo up in the second half and Scott Thomson came on and made couple of great saves. We certainly went out and performed. Nicholson was good on the ball and of course Youssef came into the defence and made a difference.

“Probably the 20000 Moroccans knew what Youssef Rossi was like but I think our supporters saw the real Rossi last night. He showed our players how good I knew he really was. It has been good but he is a lot better. He is at home and here he is the King. Even at the airport this morning the reception he got was frightening.

“It was a great occasion for everyone and the supporters given the cheer like that. Even this morning at the airport people were clapping.

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