Bellshill dumped from cup despite spirited display

Jan 27 2011 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

BELLSHILL Athletic staged a valiant second-half rally but still conceded a 2-1 defeat to Bo’ness United in Saturday’s Emirates Scottish Cup fourth round tie.

Two soft goals inside an eight-minute spell within the first half hour gave Bellshill an uphill climb as – following horrendous weather conditions in the last month or so – they became the first county club to contest a fifth-round slot.

Bellshill certainly stepped up their tempo in the second half on their Sir Matt Busby Sports Complex 3G pitch and went close several times, but didn’t do enough to avert a cup KO.

Midfielder John Fraser pounced on a loose ball to net from eight yards in 17 minutes.

Eight minutes later on-loan Hamilton Accies centre-half Brian McQueen headed in a second.

Brendan Crozier had a 25-yard lob tipped over after the interval and Sean Flynn saw a shot deflected wide.

Bellshill made their first substitution in 62 minutes and the arrival of Andy Selkirk paid dividends as he headed in a Nicky Cairney corner five minutes later.

Fellow sub Leyton Slack had a header cleared off the line before Selkirk headed over from close range.

On-form Sean McKenna then blasted the ball over when a square pass might have resulted in an equaliser.

New signing Mark Smith, formerly with Motherwell and Cowdenbeath, had two efforts which were charged down.

That was new manager Gerry Creaney’s first defeat in six games and as the players headed for the dressing rooms he said: “I’m not disappointed but actually very proud of the lads.

“They’re a new team I had to put together quite quickly and they performed to the standards we expect from them now, but I am just a wee bit disappointed that the first-half performance didn’t work out the way we wanted.

“Our plan basically was to get the ball down and pass it, so we set up a formation which allowed us to do that and our players are picking that up.

“It didn’t work out in the first half, and you can’t afford to give a team like Bo’ness a two-goal start.

“In the second half I thought we were probably the better team. We pushed on and did well.

“Their opening goal came from their first attack – it was a miskick by one of our defenders and a rebound.

“We switched off for the second goal as well, which came from a quickly-taken free-kick.

“Bellshill might have given Bo’ness a little fright so I’m delighted with our overall performance.”

A severe Friday frost saw Blantyre Vics’ plans to play Broughty Athletic scuppered – at the eighth attempt, spanning a frustratingly cash-strapping 10-week period.

Match secretary Andy McDade said on Saturday: “I told the Broughty secretary that the game was off and his reply was that he wasn’t surprised, adding that there was no way we could get round the difficulty by switching venues.

“Their park, which is up near the Dundee area, has been unplayable for six weeks.”

Vics have the advantage of an injury-free pack, which was not the case those many weeks ago, but players’ match fitness is an obvious difficulty to overcome, despite the efforts of manager Ian Rankin and committee members to arrange indoor training sessions at various sports centres.

The third-round pairings that were first scheduled for November 27 are again listed for this Saturday, January 29.

This ‘continued’ cup card also includes Rutherglen Glencairn’s tie at Dalry and Cambuslang Rangers’ visit to Sauchie.