Wishaw boss happy with St Anthony's point after key striker pulled out in warm-up for West of Scotland league opener

Wishaw boss David Dunn admits he was happy to take a point from their West of Scotland Second Division opener away to St Anthony's after a nightmare build-up.

The Beltane Park side were missing a host of key players due to injuries and absences, but their plans were thrown into real turmoil just 20 minutes before kick-off when star striker Kieran Brannan pulled up in the warm-up.

The Wishy hitman had been struggling with a calf problem in pre-season and passed a fitness test before the game.

However, he was unable to start the match and Wishaw went on to draw the game 1-1 when 28th minute strike cancelled out Ged Dodds' opener for the hosts.

Dunn said: "We want to win games but when I look back on everything that went on, with an eventful week and players missing, it was a good point.

"It could have gone either way because we both had chances to win it so I'm quite happy with a point.

"We lost Kieran Brannan in the warm-up on Saturday, which was a huge blow to us.

"He hadn't trained for a couple of weeks but he passed a fitness test. We thought he was going to be okay but he pulled up 20 minutes before kick-off so we were forced into a reshuffle.

"It wasn't ideal.

"We were still missing four or five players, but the boys did well considering all that went on.

"You don't want to get beat on the first day but if I am being critical it is probably the worst we've played so far.

"In pre-season we've been excellent - and I know pre-season games are totally different - so it was a bit disappointing.

"I felt we could have done a lot better in a lot of aspects, but the boys know that.

"The good thing is I've got a lot of boys coming back this week so there will be competition for places again.

"Aiden Ward, Josh Dean and Scott