Glens boss McEwan wary of his wounded ahead of crunch clash
GLENAFTON manager Craig McEwan has promised he will have his side ready for Saturday’s crunch Macron Scottish Junior Cup clash against Pollok despite a “very bruising encounter” with Irvine Meadow filling the sick bay.
Last weekend’s 1-0 victory at Meadow Park – Glenafton’s seventh win in their last eight outings – came at a heavy price after Ally Park and Chris Dallas both hobbled off with ankle injuries, Dale Moore attended hospital with a suspected broken jaw and defensive lynchpin Kyle McAusland got his marching orders to leave him staring at a possible suspension.
And it only rubbed salt in the wounds for McEwan to be sent off after the final whistle for making his feelings known to the officials.
He insisted: “They clearly don’t like being told a few home truths about their duty of care towards players out on the pitch.
“There’s no chance of Dallas figuring against Pollok unless his middle name is Lazarus and Ally Park is no better than 50/50 after lasting less than quarter of an hour before a heavy challenge has forced him off.
“Dale’s face is a bit tender and he didn’t do much at training tonight but he’ll probably be up for playing which is a massive boost because he and Findlay Frye have struck up a terrific engineroom partnership along with Park.
“Kit Cummings is another definite non-starter but thankfully Conor Lynas has recovered from being on the wrong end of a few meaty challenges while having both Joe Andrew and Mick McCann fit is another plus.
“Having so many walking wounded is not what you would call ideal preparation going into arguably our biggest game of the season but if the guys perform as they can then I’m confident we can come through this test of our credentials.”
Southy. who lives within a few miles of Newlandsfield is well aware of opponents Pollok having injury concerns of their own ahead of their journey down to Loch Park.
He reasoned: “We have had them watched on a couple of occasions since the draw and their strength in depth is such that they are able to chop and change their team.
“We will take a stab at their expected starting X1 and you can take it that our training sessions this week have been tailored to facing Pollok and hopefully exploiting the weaknesses identified.”