Cup highs and lows for Lanarkshire sides

Shotts Bon Accord made the four-hour trip to Elgin worthwhile by beating Burghead 5-2 in Saturday’s Scottish Cup first round tie.

Burghead scored after five minutes, but Steve Aitken equalised in 35 minutes.

The hosts went 2-1 up but Ally Martin converted a Dean Sutherland pass to make it 2-2 at the break.

Danny Burns (right) then made a matchwinning impact after the break by scoring a hat-trick.

Sutherland was again the provider for Burns to net his first in 51 minutes, Ryan Kennedy set up his second 20 minutes later, then after Glenn Eadie was red-carded in 81 minutes, Burns pounced to net from an Aitken pass.

Assistant manager Paul Finnigan said:“it was an excellent result and a good team performance.

“Although we lost an early opening goal, I never felt we were in danger of losing the tie from the way we played after that, with Danny Burns scoring a hat-trick.

“It was a great feeling on the road back – now we look forward to the draw for the second round.” Newmains United were the only other county side in cup action, but they went down 4-2 to Annbank United.

Manager Kevin Muirhead said:“we did a lot better than we have done recently, but the referee made what I thought was an horrendous decision that ‘gave’them a goal, then an offside issue meant they were 2-0 up.

“We were up against it, but we battled hard. We went 3-0 down, then came back to 3-2 and we threw everything at them, but their goalkeeper made a couple of great saves.”

Darren Doone scored from a corner, then Jay Burns snapped up a long ball to net a second when he headed the ball over the goalkeeper’s head, then rounded him to knock the ball into the net.