Survival bid touch and Gow

JUNIOR football chiefs in the west avoided uproar by the skin of their teeth this week. And you wonder if they even noticed.

Few will have realised the magnitude of Lesmahagow’s final first division game of the season at home to Neilston on Monday.

That was the fixture rearranged after the original was inexplicably stopped 10 minutes early by blundering ref Michael McCart – with the Gow leading 3-1.

Now, starting again at 0-0, Lesmahagow knew defeat would mean relegation because Vale of Clyde, sitting one place below were on equal points with the Lanarkshire men but just a goal worse off.

Which is the real scandal as this is the Vale of Clyde side deducted just one measly point after being caught fielding a player under a false name in a previous fixture.

Imagine that chain of events in the professional game? The game would be in disrepute.

And it looked grim when Neilston raced into a 2-0 lead. Fair play to the Gow players for fighting back for a share of the points and ultimately saving their division one status.

On a more positive note, it’s cup final day today and not just at Hampden as down the road at Newlandsfield Pollok and Cumnock go head to head for the West of Scotland Cup.

Two sides that finished in the lower end of the Premier League but both with bundles of quality meaning this should be an absolute cracker.

It’s just a shame it clashes with the big one at the National Stadium.