Barry wants to upset his old mates NO FRIENDS IN FOOTBALL
East Kilbride skipper Barry Russell is aiming to shoot down his old club Albion Rovers in the Betfred Cup this weekend.
And the former Cliftonhill defender hopes to earn the bragging rights over some old friends in the process.
Russell spent three years in Coatbridge between 2011-14 and is looking forward to crossing swords with old team-mate Alan Reid and Rovers’ new signing Joao Victoria, who was Kilby’s top scorer last season.
The 28-year-old, from Westwood, said: “It’s always good to face your old team. I’m still good friends with a few of the players there, like Alan Reid who has been at the club for 10 years now.
“And Joao joined them in the summer so it will be good to see him again so quickly.
“Albion Rovers are a great club and I had some great times there. We won a relegation play-off and took Rangers to a Scottish Cup replay.
“But there’s no friends in football and I hope we go and beat them on Saturday.
“Joao is a great player and he’ll be a real threat for them. We know what he is capable of, but I like playing against Joao.
“His trickery always gives you a good challenge, so I hope I can keep him quiet.”
Kilby opened their Betfred Cup campaign at the weekend with a 3-1 defeat to Hamilton Accies. The
200717ekfc_11 Lowland League champions looked to be heading for a shock draw with the Premiership side but two goals in the final nine minutes denied them a stunning result.
As the News went to press last night, EK were about to take on Queen of the South in their second Group G match.
But Russell insists his side will take all 1-1 we looked really dangerous and had some good chances to win it.
“The boys were disappointed we didn’t take something but we’ll take a lot of confidence from it into the next few games.”
The 21-year-old was thrilled with the atmosphere at K-Park as 531 punters took in the match. He said: “The support we had was fantastic and it gave us an extra yard.
“Accies had a strong support there but you could still hear our fans signing. It was great.”
Six minutes before the break Accies took the lead and Kilby keeper Matt McGinley will be kicking himself for his role in the goal.
Under no pressure, McGinley let a pass- back slip through his legs and gifted Accies a corner. The first corner was turned behind by Kilby and from the second set-piece MacKinnon the positives from the clash into their remaining games.
He added: “We’ll take a lot of confidence from the Hamilton match. It felt a bit gutting not to take anything from the game after being in it for so long.
“We did ourselves proud and we showed we can compete at this level.
“There’s a lot of players in our team who can play at League One level, so it will be interesting to see if we are on a level with Rovers – or maybe if we are ahead of them.
“These next two games (against Rovers and Stenny) are games we will be looking to win.
Following Saturday’s clash with Rovers at K-Park, kick-off 3pm, Kilby close out their group stage matches on Tuesday night when they head to Ochilview to play Stenhousemuir, kick-off 7.30pm. volleyed home unmarked from Crawford’s corner.
Ten minutes into the second half Rakish Bingham missed a sitter for the visitors.
McGinley saved a strike from Imrie but it rebounded into the path of Bingham six yards out and he somehow contrived to blaze over with the goal at his mercy.
Adam Strachan hit the bar with a stunning 30-yard free-kick two minutes later as EK tried to get back into the game. Kevin McCann latched on to the rebound but his effort found the side-netting.
Kilby equalised from the penalty spot in 69 minutes when Georgios Sarris was penalised for pulling down Craig Howie in the box and Winter converted the spot-kick.
But Accies went back in front when Longridge headed home from Grant
P W D L GD PT Hamilton Accies 1 1 0 0 2 3 Queen of the South 1 1 0 0 2 3 Albion Rovers 0 0 0 0 0 0 EAST KILBRIDE 1 0 0 1 -2 0 Stenhousemuir 1 0 0 1 -2 0
Fixtures: July 22 – East Kilbride v Albion Rovers; Hamilton Accies v Queen of the South. July 25 – Stenhousemuir v East Kilbride; Albion Rovers v Hamilton. July 29 – Hamilton v Stenhousemuir; Queen of the South v Albion Rovers. Gillespie’s deflected cross six yards out. And in stoppage time Crawford completed the win when he tapped home from close range after a neat one-two with Daniel Redmond.
EK boss Billy Stark said: “I’m delighted with the way the boys acquitted themselves and kept us in the game.
“I felt to lose a third goal was harsh. We didn’t deserve that.
“I’m really pleased with our players. They showed they deserve to be in this national cup competition.
“We expect Hamilton to have more possession but if you measure it on chances I didn’t think there was much in it.”
As the News went to press on Tuesday night, EK were about to kick-off against Queen of the South in Dumfries. On Saturday they host Albion Rovers, kick-off 3pm.