Cove Rangers midfielder Blair Yule only had three points on his mind after the 4-2 defeat of East Fife, despite scoring his first SPFL goal for the club.
Yule hit the milestone by scoring his side’s third goal of the day and his Boxing Day performance was praised by boss Paul Hartley, who described him as being “different class”.
But Yule insists that, while it was a bonus to get on the scoresheet and receive the man of the match award, picking up the three points was all that mattered to him.
“It feels pretty good to score, but goals aren’t something that do very much for me. Getting the three points in the end was all that mattered,” Yule said.
“You can’t do it without the other players beside you on the park, it’s a man of the match award, but it’s the team that wins at the end of the day.
“I don’t think we particularly had our best game today, but what matters is those three points and it was quite a comfortable win in the end.”
Room for improvement
It was an impressive second half performance from Yule and his teammates, as Cove scored four goals after countless chances in the first 45 minutes.
64’ | CRFC 3-0 EFFC
GOOAALLL! BLAIR YULE MAKES IT 3!! A great strike from the edge of the box leaving the keeper with no chance!#CRFCLive pic.twitter.com/RSTlMy91At
— Cove Rangers FC (@CoveRangersFC) December 26, 2021
However, East Fife’s two goals, which came either side of Cove’s third and fourth counters, were the first league goals to be scored against Cove in 618 minutes of football – a record that stretched back to their 3-3 draw with Queen’s Park in October.
Yule said: “We did more than enough to win the game. We’re a team that wants to do the best that we can all the time, so we’re looking at the two goals thinking we need to cut that out.
“But we’ve been on a good run with clean sheets, and at the end of the day we won the game – that’s all that matters.
“It was a bit unfortunate to concede and like I say we’re a team that will look at those kinds of things and we want to do everything right.
“It was a scrappy goal to lose, but the second goal from them was outrageous.”
Ending 2021 on top
The victory over East Fife extended Cove’s unbeaten run to 12 games and has given them a comfortable five-point cushion over Montrose at the top of the league.
And, while Cove will be delighted with their position, Yule insists his side remain focused on winning every game.
The midfielder said: “At the start of the season, it’s somewhere we looked to be.
“We’re halfway through the season now up at the top, which is where we want to stay – but we need to keep churning out the wins.”