Larkhall stage glorious comeback, while Bellshill are thrashed

Oct 27 2011 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

LARKHALL THISTLE stormed back after conceding a controversial opener to beat Port Glasgow 3-1 and clinch fifth place in the Central League First Division.

Former Accies keeper Davie McEwan produced three superb saves to keep a lacklustre Thistle side in the hunt at half-time, then on the hour-mark parried a shot then turned John Paterson’s rebound effort onto a post.

But referee Derek Crothers stunned both dug-outs by signalling a goal, claiming the ball had crossed the line.

Thistle made a double substitution on 65 minutes, with almost instant success.

A minute after Graham Gracie and Kevin Dailly stepped up from the bench, the latter struck the crossbar.

And in 71 minutes Mark McKeever equalised from a John Paul Grant cross.

Thistle stepped up the tempo and Grant, Gracie and Mark Canning went close before Scott McLachlan notched a second goal with five minutes left.

And with the game drifting into stoppage time Gracie nutmegged his marker and picked out Canning to slide in a clinching third goal.

Thistle boss Duncan Sinclair said: “I thought we were poor in the first half – the park was quite sticky and we weren’t getting the ball down to play football.

“My assistant, Tam McLaughlin, and I had a wee go at them at half-time and told them we wanted to see them more aggressive, to make Port Glasgow more defensive and on the turn, and to be fair to the lads they did it, and with style.

“To beat Port Glasgow 3-1 after going 1-0 down is a fantastic result – we keep telling the lads that we’ve got a good squad, a good mentality, and a great togetherness in the dressing room.”

BELLSHILL Athletic, after a promising start, slumped to a 4-1 defeat against Neilston, leaving manager Colin Mitchell baffled.

He said: “In the first 20 minutes we should have gone two or three goals up, and for the first 10 minutes of the second half we looked quite good – but apart from that we were terrible.”

Neilston snatched the lead on 44 minutes then after the break Darren Rygate smacked the bar and the keeper denied Gary Redpath before Derek Anderson equalised from a Steve Hopewell cross.

But it was downhill from there as Neilston scored three more – including a Lee Morrison own-goal – leaving Bellshill in sixth place, two points behind Larkhall but having played twice more.