McColl sees red as ‘vendetta’ against the Lang spills over
CAMBUSLANG 0
IRVINE MEADOW 2
THERE are times in this job when football takes second place and Saturday’s meeting of Cambuslang Rangers and Irvine Meadow was a case in point.
The score, 2-0 in favour of the Ayrshiremen, was almost rendered incidental by a controversial flashpoint just minutes into the second half which culminated in two Lang players, Scott Faulds and John Gemmell being sent off along with their outspoken manager Paul McColl.
He has already served a touchline ban this season and is due up before the beaks tomorrow evening so one might take with a pinch of salt his vehement insistence that he did nothing wrong to incur the wrath of whistler Calum Scott were it not for a clutch of visiting fans coming forward to offer support and back his allegations.
McColl raged: “Scott has gone in and won the ball yet is given his marching orders and big Gemmell has then asked what the red card is for and received a second yellow card for dissent… really?
“I have done nothing more than shout to the linesman to ask the referee to come over and speak to me, yet I am sent packing on account of foul and abusive Language so little wonder I have gone to Mr Scott’s room after the game to ask if I could speak to him in the company of my club’s match secretary.
“But true to form he point blank refuses to speak and after such an appalling display, I am left thinking our supporters have got it more right than wrong in feeling there is a vendetta towards myself and the players here at Cambuslang Rangers.
”Our players are sitting inside the dressing room, absolutely gutted over decision after decision going against them and it’s simply not acceptable.”
The neutral viewpoint reckons wholehearted defender Faulds has launched into a tackle on Medda midfielder Colin Spence that has felled the playmaker and left him nursing scrapes and bruises afterwards.
The 34-year-old Junior internationalist said: “The lad has definitely caught me and I’ve the marks high up on my thigh to prove it but I do feel it was more of a reckless challenge than one to cause me any serious injury.”
The delay caused by the furore over bustling striker Gemmell’s dismissal followed by McColl enabled Spenny to recover in time to see Medda skipper Ben Carson flight the free kick into the box where centre-back Calum Gow rose highest to head home and open the scoring.
Cambuslang’s depleted number were now under pressure and it was no real surprise when Medda doubled their advantage approaching the hour mark through Darren Jones cleverly setting up Carson to stroke the ball home from around 12 yards out.
A third goal looked on the cards when Lang substitute Mark Staunton tugged back Jones inside the box but the resulting spot kick, taken by Jones himself, was parried away by Lang goalkeeper Iain Stewart diving low to his right .
And a late consolation score was denied the home side at the other end of the pitch when Calum McRobbie raced clear only for his parting shot to rebound of the crossbar with visiting Shaun Newman beaten all ends up.
Medda assistant manager Stevie Aitchison lauded his players as “professional “when offering his after-match summations.
“We dealt with the overhead conditions and bobbly pitch in a professional manner and we didn’t get involved and just got on with winning the game when all the second-half shenanigans erupted,” he said.
“I didn’t see the incident clearly but it all comes down to the referee’s interpretation of whether the tackle on Spenny is a bad foul or an over-robust challenge.”
Elsewhere in the Premiership top flight, league leaders Hurlford United saw a first closing of the gap between themselves and the chasing pack after the firsthalf dismissal of stopper Chris Robertson contributed to a 2-0 defeat at home to Kilwinning Rangers for whom David Syme and Marc McKenzie were on the scoresheet.
Second in the table Clydebank took full advantage as a Jordan Shelvey treble and counters from Stevie Higgins and Del Hepburn brought a resounding 5-1 victory away to Troon whose consolation score was netted by Dylan Pooler.
‘‘ He point blank refused to speak to me after such an appalling display