MATCH REPORT: KIRKINTILLOCH ROB ROY 4-1 ARTHURLIE

By Ross Lafferty

ARTHURLIE’S hopes of Scottish Junior Cup glory came crashing to an end against Kirkintilloch Rob Roy at Duncansfield Park in Kilsyth.

On a rather strange morning the Quarter-Final tie was switched to the home of Kilsyth Rangers after Rob Roy’s home park at Guy’s Meadow was declared unplayable.

That followed an earlier pitch inspection on Thursday when it was deemed to be playable and led to fans and teams alike changing their travel plans at the last minute.

Despite the change of venue the “home” side started the game well against their lower division opponents and had a penalty appeal waved away after only 3 minutes.

Arthurlie went straight up the park, however, and Nad Zeb should probably have done better when he failed to find the target with a header from close range.

Three minutes later Zeb came close with another header but again couldn’t trouble the goalkeeper.

On 7 minutes Andrew McLaughlin went down following a strong tackle in the middle of the park. Following treatment the young midfielder had to be replaced by Kieron Chalmers.

This was a big blow to Andy McFadyen’s side who were already missing several first team players from the squad.

A couple of minutes later the Premier League side took the lead, with Truesdale opening the scoring from a free-kick just outside the box.

Rob Roy were getting the better of the match at this point and only two brilliant saves from James Scott in the Arthurlie goal on 20 minutes kept the score at 1-0.

But on the half-hour mark the scores were level! A crossfield pass from Conor Bradley found Kieran Chalmers on the opposite wing and his cross from the right was headed home by captain Gary Carroll.

The Conference A leaders took charge at this point of the game and had the home side pegged back for a spell, forcing five corners in a row shortly after the equaliser.

On 40 minutes Tam McGaughey came close to giving Arthurlie the lead with a trademark cut-in from the right but his left-footed effort went just past the post.

Just a minute later Darren Ramsay came similarly close, narrowly missing the target from 20 yards.

With Arthurlie having closed out the first half strongest the game started back after the break much more evenly and Rob Roy restored the lead after 55 minutes through substitute Baber.

Four minutes later the Kirkintilloch added a third with a scrappy goal and at the restart Arthurlie were reduced to ten men following discussions between the referee and his assistant, with Ramsay seeing red.

The promotion chasing Barrhead side struggled to make an impact with a man less and at the death Rob Roy added a fourth to seal their place in the semis.

Arthurlie team: Scott, Ramsay, Bradley (Dunsmore 72), Macneil, Pearce, McLaughlin (Chalmers 8), Roulston, Leyden, McGaughey, Zeb, Carroll

Subs not used: McArdle, Noone, O’Hare, McLachlan, Black (GK)