'There's no pressure because nobody is giving us a chance' - Adam Nelson speaks on Newtongrange Star's survival bid

While his former club Bonnyrigg Rose face a crucial Lowland League clash in the race for the title this weekend, Adam Nelson is preparing for a must-win relegation battle with Newtongrange Star in the East of Scotland League.

Nelson, whose finest moment in a Rose shirt saw him net the winner to knock Championship club Dumbarton out of the Scottish Cup back in 2016, ended his trophy-laden four season spell at New Dundas Park in the summer. He is used to competing for titles and cup silverware, not slugging it out for survival.

Star are in a precarious position. Rooted to the bottom of the table with more games spent than their nearest rivals around them, they face a mammoth task to remain in the top flight with the bottom three clubs demoted.

“I’m used to being in dressing rooms where you are challenging for titles and trophies, so this has been a totally different situation where you are scrapping, fighting and scrapping trying to pick up points here and there,” said the 35-year-old ahead of Star's home match with Musselburgh Athletic tomorrow.

“It’s not like we haven’t been competitive, we’ve been competitive in most games. We have got a decent squad of players but it has just not been happening on the pitch. We got off to a decent start in pre-season and started fairly well but we just never really kicked on after that.

“In my opinion there needs to be competition [in the squad] with your position under threat if you aren’t playing well. Including myself, there’s not been that much pressure if you didn’t really play that well because there isn’t anyone there to fill your boots. At Linlithgow and Bonnyrigg, if you weren’t an eight out of ten, then you weren’t playing the week after.

“There must be six or seven games left for us, so it is seven cup finals for us and we need to win the majority of them. There shouldn’t be any pressure on us, we can just go and play now, because nobody is giving us a chance. With three going down most people would say we are definitely one of them.”

Newtongrange, along with Haddington Athletic, Tranent Juniors and Bo’ness United received notice on Wednesday that the SFA Club Licensing Committee have acknowledged the three clubs meet the Entry Level criteria requirements, with the decision to award licenses set to be ratified at the next SFA board meeting in April.

Bo’ness, currently in pole position at the top of the table with hopes of promotion to the Lowland League, host Dunbar United tomorrow.