Shotts misfire and slump to heavy defeat

Nov 20 2008 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

LANARK United snatched a valuable draw from their visit to Maybole, which provided them with a one-goal cushion over Largs at the top of the Super League First Division.

But Shotts slumped to a 3-0 defeat at Kilsyth Rangers after turning in a shocker of a display.

For the first time this season Lanark failed to find the net, but match secretary Tam Anderson was pleased with the result.

He said: “It was, as expected, a hard game and a good point. Although it was 0-0 it was quite an exciting game and it was good to see Tom Hanlon coming on for the second half.”

Lanark will again be without striker Craig Miles for Saturday’s home game against Renfrew – the only side to have defeated United this season, and that was in the Sectional League Cup semi-final.

Shotts were thrashed 3-0 at home to Kilsyth Rangers on Saturday and although boss Duncan Sinclair fielded the same side that recorded a convincing 3-0 Scottish Junior Cup win against Kinnoull the previous week, hopes of a repeat performance were quickly dismissed.

“This was an opportunity for us to go second in the league, but over the park there wasn’t a single person who excelled at all,” Sinclair groaned. “We hit with the wind behind us in the first half and although we were very poor we did manage to create chances

“We told them at half-time that they needed to increase their effort, but we got no response.

“We lost the first goal 10 minutes into the second half, and although we made three changes that didn’t seem to work either.”

Striker James Osborne made his long-awaited comeback from injury as a substitute but Sinclair goes into Saturday’s trip to Kilwinning Rangers with doubts over Jamie White, who is suffering from a rib injury.