Moor Park men forced to sweat it out over their play-off prospects

Jun 4 2009 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

LANARK United blew their chance to grab an automatic play-off place when they crashed 1-0 at home to relegation-haunted Port Glasgow on Friday – but could still make it.

Victory would have seen United play Glenafton last night (Wednesday), with the return leg at Moor Park on Saturday – and the winner guaranteed Super Premier League football next season.

Instead United find themselves in the same emotional turmoil that Carluke Rovers experienced a fortnight ago, as they wait to see if an outsider with games in hand can save the day – or sink their dreams.

Ahead of Tuesday night’s fixtures Clydebank could have pipped Lanark if they had taken seven points from their three games in hand, but crashed to a shock 3-0 defeat by Port Glasgow.

Lanark must now hope that Scottish Cup finalists Clydebank can do them a favour by beating Girvan at home on Saturday, although even a draw would see United through.

If not Lanark will have to sweat it out until Girvan play their final game at home to Renfrew on Monday.

But if results go Lanark’s way, they will head for Glenafton in the play-off first leg on Wednesday, with the Moor Park return the following Saturday.

As he left the field on Friday, Lanark boss Tony McInally groaned: “To have amassed 47 points in their first season in the Super League is immense – but I can’t mask my disappointment because it’s out of our own hands now.”

Lanark never looked like getting the upper hand over a side spiralling into the Central League; they were devoid of energy, ideas and precision passing, and toothless in attack.

Apart from a Tom Hanlon free-kick and a Paul Burns drive, which were both well saved by the keeper, United never really tested the Port defence.

McInally said: “The lack of a cutting edge has come back to haunt us – we lacked the killer touch to score goals.

“We’ve been forced to play with a shadow squad in certain games over the past six weeks, and in fairness to the players – many of whom have been carrying injuries – they have done well to get us this far.

“But on Friday we were poor for at least an hour and you can’t wait for 70 minutes before we start to have a go at the opposition and put them under pressure.

“We were without Craig Stark and Craig Miles, and Mark Haddow, David Middleton, David Gray, Tom Hanlon and Kieron Downs were all carrying injuries, as was substitute Paul Finnegan.”