Manager lambasts ‘schoolboy mistakes’ as Bellshill lose fourth place in league

Nov 20 2008 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

A BELOW-PAR display cost 10-man Bellshill fourth spot in the Super Premier League after they crashed 4-0 at home to Kirkintilloch Rob Roy.

A side which had won four of their seven previous league games were too often outwitted in open play, and outjumped in the opposition goal area.

Bellshill lost a soft goal in the second minute and John Boyle saw a low drive crash off a post two minutes later as the New Brandon Park side tried to level.

However, slackness in defence allowed Grant Anderson to volley in a second goal midway through the half.

Bellshill tried to hit back again 60 seconds later, but Paul McBride saw his shot cleared off the line.

Scott McNab then produced two instinctive goal-line saves, but Rob Roy added a third through Mike Hughes, before the hosts were reduced to 10 men when Willie Soutar was shown a second yellow card with eight minutes remaining.

James Lennox added a dubious fourth late in the game to complete the scoring.

Bellshill boss Tam McDonald blasted: “They take the applause when they get good results, so they can take the stick when they get bad results.

“In the first 25 minutes it looked as though we would run over them if we had just scored early on, but we didn’t.

“Kirkintilloch were the better team and deserved to win, but the goals we lost were from schoolboy mistakes.

“We had a chance to climb back into the game when we were awarded a second-half penalty, but we missed it, so we’ve got to take it on the chin.”

Bellshill are away to big-spending Irvine Meadow on Saturday, where the incentive is that a win would allow them to recapture fourth spot.