Junior football round-up

Jul 22 2010 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

BELLSHILL Athletic fought back to claim their second annual Vics Charity Trophy in a row but it was new Blantyre winger James Miller who stole the show with an impressive debut.

The new signing from Carluke Rovers had only put pen to paper last Friday for the Castle Park club but settled in immediately with a man-of-the-match performance for the Vics.

Former Stenhousemuir star Miller had already struck the woodwork before he opened his Vics account on 22 minutes – and he was denied a double against Bellshill by a superb one-handed save.

But although Vics edged the first half with their neat close passing play, Bellshill equalised three minutes before the interval when Garry McKellar beat Gerry McGinty with a chip from the edge of the box.

Athletic were the stronger team in the second half and two quickfire goals on the hour-mark turned the game on its head.

David ‘Bonner’ McKenzie cheekily back-heeled the ball over the line after an effort had been blocked, then substitute Scott Marshall surged through unchallenged before slotting into the net.

Seconds from time, Ryan Connelly snatched Bellshill’s fourth.

Bellshill boss Danny Drew said: “It was good to win but it’s hard to judge things after our first game.

“The boys have trained hard for five sessions but match fitness will only start kicking in after two or three games – I’ll wait until then before deciding on what shape we will play.”

Meanwhile, new signing Stuart Tullis weighed in with a debut double as LANARK UNITED beat Vale of Clyde 3-2 at Crownpoint Stadium.

Tullis was first on target but Vale equalised within a few minutes.

However, Jamie Doyle scored from the spot to put Lanark into a half-time lead.

Tullis stretched Lanark’s advantage to 3-1 on the hour-mark, but Vale pulled one back 13 minutes from the end.

Des Bradshaw was also a double hero as THORNIEWOOD UNITED made the trip to Ayrshire a very rewarding one, emerging with a 7-2 win over Muirkirk. United’s other scorers in the slick show were Brian Wharton, new signing Stephen Low, player-manager John Fallon, player-of -the-year Andy Stewart and Chris Queen.

CARLUKE clocked up a 2-1 win in their annual pre-season duel away to Nithsdale Wanderers, with Stewart Arnott starting off where he left last season, by getting his name on the scoresheet.

The striker netted from the spot after 10 minutes, with the hosts levelling by half-time.

But Mark Haddow hit an 80th-minute winner.

Rovers head back down to Dumfries this week for their annual clash with Crichton Amateurs.

STONEHOUSE VIOLET celebrated their return to junior football by clocking up a 3-2 win at Shettleston.

The young side opened well and their entertaining, passing game brought its own reward as they snatched a 2-0 lead in the first half.

John Gemmell set up the first for Craig Munro to volley into the top corner. When Munro was later brought down inside the box, Gemmell tucked away the spot-kick.

The experienced Shettleston side gained the edge in the second half as they pulled the score back to 2-2, but Stonehouse, after having a ‘goal’ disallowed due to an offside, hit back and Billy Stevenson snatched the winner.

Violet chairman Malcolm Black said: “It was a great day and a fantastic result for a very young Violet team against a well-organised Shettleston side.

“Our young lads learned a lot from Saturday’s match experience – for most of them it was their first taste of junior football.”

WISHAW notched up a 5-0 win over Linlithgow Amateurs at Grangemouth, with goals from Gerry Ward, David Lynch, John Paul McBride, James Coffey and Stefan Anderson.

Co-manager Alex Young said: “I’m quite happy with the way things are going – we used 19 players on Saturday and scored five goals, which can’t be bad.”