Girvan beat Longside to march on in Junior Cup

Nov 13 2009 by Mike WIlson, Ayrshire Post (main ed)

DELIGHTED Brian McLuckie hopes Girvan’s season is about to take off.

The Hamilton Park men crushed Longside 4-0 to march into the third round of the Emirates Junior Cup.

Gaffer McLuckie says the big win had been coming for weeks. He claimed: “We dominated from start to finish and for once everything came to fruition. We have been playing well for weeks but this time we got our rewards.

“Now we have a huge league game at home to leaders Glencairn on Saturday. We’re down near the bottom but it’s a tight First Division and three or four wins will have us pushing for the top.”

A Tony Murphy goal had Girvan ahead at the break and second-half strikes followed from George Wallace, Darren Mitchell and Scott Cunningham.

A blow is that striker Steven Shankland has left for Glenafton but McLuckie is working on two or three deals for a replacement.

AUCHINLECK stalwart James Latta headed a double as the cup holders beat Stonehaven 3-0.

Latta struck in 15 minutes and then sub Danny McKelvie added a second with his first touch. Latta had the final word.

KELLO came from behind three times to beat Arniston 6-5 on penalties after a 3-3 draw in a cracker at Kirkconnel.

Trailing to a fifth minute penalty, they hit back through a Jocky McCluskey spot-kick before falling behind to a Martin Bell OG at the break.

McCluskey equalised with a second penalty as Arniston went down to ten men. The visitors went 3-2 up but then saw red again only for Kello to fail with the penalty.

Deep in injury time, with Arniston on the ropes, sub Liam Fleming pressed a defender into conceding an OG.

In the spot-kick decider, sub Kevin Elliot put Kello 6-5 ahead. Keeper Cameron Menzies then saved to send the home team through.

In the First Division, GLENAFTON went second with a 3-2 win over Neilston.

Brian Miller gave them an early lead only for David Armour to level at the break. Keeper Ally Semple then had good saves before David Clapperton fired home a Simon Eeles cut-back.

Eeles added a third before Ian Milne got one back to spark late nerves.

CUMNOCK crashed 4-1 at Glencairn in a game of four red cards, three disallowed goals and two missed penalties.

Graham Wilson nodded home a Gary McMenamin cross for an interval lead before Glencairn took over in a stormy second-half.

Stevie Murray, McMenamin and Stevie Agnew all walked for Cumnock along with the home team’s Craig Palmer. Chris Fahey saved a Paul McLaughlin penalty while Tony Fraser fired a spot-kick wide before the break.

LUGAR left their cash worries behind to beat Irvine Vics 1-0 and go third in the Ayrshire League. A John Anderson goal after 35 minutes split the teams.

The club are poised to make severe cash cuts to safeguard their future and have spoken to the players.

Secretary Kennie Young revealed: “Promised sponsorship isn’t coming through or is being cut so will have to raise money in-house.

“If we carry on the way we are we would be closed down by the turn of the year. That’s why we are facing things head on now.

“There will have to be cuts in player wages but to what extent we are not yet sure. However, the players have been tremendous and some have offered to play for expenses only. Nobody has thrown a strop.”

CRAIGMARK came from behind to beat Darvel 3-1 after going behind to a penalty.

Brian Kerr equalised before the break. Scott Dinwoodie curled in a 25 yard free-kick and sub Scott Dempster hit the third with an angled drive.