Barrhead Youth cup dreams crash
It was heartbreak for Barrhead Youth 21s at the Excelsior Stadium in Airdrie on Sunday as they lost out to Rutherglen Glencairn in the Scottish Cup final.
Barrhead will feel it’s a game they could and should have won.
The game kicked off in glorious sunshine with Barrhead cheered on by a healthy support from the town.
Barrhead quickly started to take control and had their first shot on goal inside the opening few minutes.
A long throw- in was partially cleared and Craig Stevenson latched on to it at the edge of the box, firing narrowly over.
Stevenson then showed great pace bursting from deep, and it took a body check from Quinn to halt his run just inside the Glens half.
But despite their pressure, the game was now end to end. And just before 20 minutes, Barrhead almost grabbed the opener in strange circumstances.
Glens’ Grier squared the ball to his keeper Truesdale, Jack Easdon chased across and when the keeper let the ball slip under his foot the forward almost nipped in, but the Glens defence managed to clear.
But on 27 minutes, Glencairn took the lead. A free kick from his own half from Grier found Phinn, who controlled with his first touch before unleashing a wonderful effort past the helpless Callum McMaster to open the scoring.
Four minutes later they went two up. Dallas played a ball through that was missed by the Barrhead defence, and Phinn was on hand to net his second.
Barrhead were all at sea now with the two quick goals knocking them for six, but to their credit they regrouped quickly. A good run from Easdon forced a corner then with 10 minutes of the half remaining they pulled a goal back.
A free kick on the left was sent right into the danger area by Connor Bradley, but wasn’t properly cleared WITH the ball bouncing in and out of the area before breaking to the edge of the box where Cammy O’Neil strode on to it before rifling home to reduce the deficit.
Into the second half, and Haggarty went crunching into a tackle on halfway before bearing down on goal, but his shot went under Truesdale’s body, and Grier managed to get back to clear from the goal-line and preserve Glencairn’s slender lead.
Etherson went close with another header before the game’s major talking point took place on 53 minutes. Ndlovu and Barrhead’s O’Neill jumped for a ball in the middle of the park with the Glens player leading with an elbow that caught O’Neil on the head.
As he dropped to the floor he looked as if he was maybe unconscious so when manager Chris Wilson was told by the fourth official his backroom weren’t allowed onto the park to treat the player without the referee’s permission he vented his fury at the official. Finally help was allowed onto the pitch but while O’Neill received treatment, the referee sent Wilson to the stands before returning to book Ndlovu.
Glencairn had a couple of chances on the break as expected but it was Barrhead who had the next real chance.
As the 90minutes had come and gone, a long throw-in from the left eventually found Lamont who shot, the Barrhead support all jumped up expecting it to crash into the back of the net, but it went inches over – and with that went Barrhead’s chance to lift the cup they won two years ago.
Barrhead: McMaster, Bradley, Etherson, McFarlane, Haggarty, C O’Neill, Middleton, Burns, McGrory, Stevenson, Easdon.
Subs: Kennedy, O’Donohue, McLaughlin, Lamont and Hughes. Stewart. Love and S McNeill were unavailable.