Juniors gearing up with pre-season friendlies

Aug 5 2010 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

SHOTTS Bon Accord followed up a 1-1 midweek draw at Livingston by clocking up an impressive 3-1 win at Nairn St Ninian’s.

The timely triumph came 48 hours after Shotts celebrated the 60th anniversary of their first competitive game – a 1-1 draw with Cleland Juniors in the old Lanarkshire League.

Livingston opened the scoring midway through the first half but the visitors levelled in the second half with a Mark Duffy penalty.

Duffy was again on target in the Highland duel at Nairn, with Tony Fleming and a trialist completing the scoring.

Thorniewood United added to their pre-season goal-scoring spree by thumping Forth Wanderers 6-1 at Robertson Park.

Des Bradshaw and Chris Queen both hit doubles in the demolition with singles from Darren Miller and Jim Murphy.

Forth boss John McGhee groaned: “We’re giving away goals for fun. We lost the first at Thorniewood after only 30 seconds.

“Young McBride in goal, whom we signed from Airdrie United just before the Clydesdale Cup tie last Monday, conceded an early goal and lost confidence.”

A revamped Wishaw outfit convincingly beat Blantyre Vics 3-1 in midweek, before going on to dump Whitefield Rovers 4-2 on Saturday.

Gerry Ward was given an early red card as Wishaw led by a Steve Morton goal.

James Coffey gave the visitors a 2-1 half-time lead against Vics and Morton, a close-season capture from Low Waters Miners’ Welfare, notched his second late in the game. John McFarlane saved a penalty at 3-1.

Declan Anderson hit a double in the win over promotion-chasing Whitefield, with singles from Drew Muir and Morton.

Co-manager Alex Young said: “We won our five pre-season friendlies, scoring 19 goals in the process but now it’s time to get down to winning points as well as games.”

Regulars James McBride, Alex Fleming and John Paul McBride were all rested.

Wednesday’s game at Castle Park marked a disappointing return from holiday for manager Ian Rankin, who drove straight from Manchester airport to take in his first game since being appointed Vics manager.

He said: “Jason Lafferty scored then missed a penalty – we created a few chances in the second half but I just didn’t think they were up for it.

“Wishaw have made several changes and have become more physical from what I remember of them last season.”

Vics went on to draw 1-1 with the returning Stonehouse Violet on Saturday, with former Newmains United striker Lafferty again on target.

Rankin said: “I didn’t know what to expect from Stonehouse but I was disappointed with our play in the second half but on a positive note, James Miller was outstanding and provided a perfect cross for Jason Lafferty to head in at the far post.”

Larkhall Thistle suffered two defeats inside a four-day spell, losing 1-0 at Fauldhouse, then going down 6-1 at home to Stenhousemuir.

Manager Duncan Sinclair said: “The goal against Fauldhouse came in the last three minutes – that was their seventh game and our third, so they were a bit sharper.

“We created some good chances, but just couldn’t take them.”

He added: “On Saturday Stenhousemuir looked a fitter and better organised side. We played a few young boys who let them keep hold of the ball.

“We went in 5-0 down and seemed to get punished for every mistake we made.

“I had words with them at half-time and it was a much-improved second half.

“We retained more of the ball as we played out a ‘1-1 second-half draw’.

“It was frustrating because the players are working hard at training and at set-pieces.

“I’ll be sitting down this week with my assistant Stephen McInulty to try and extract the positives.”