Young Glens clinch Golden semi spot
Rutherglen Glencairn Under 21s moved into the semi final of the Golden Goals Cup with a hard-fought 1-0 away win over league title rivals Tower Hearts.
Glencairn ‘keeper Chris Truesdale was called into action on more occasions than he would have liked and did well to keep out Hearts in the opening 45 minutes.
The major talking point of the match arrived in the 56th minute. McGuiness slipped a clever pass into the penalty area to Phinn, and his low shot was cleared off the goal line. Bennett fired in the rebound, which was blocked again on the goal line by a defender’s arm, before the ball was finally lashed into the net by a Glencairn player.
However, the referee had whistled for a penalty kick before the ball was fired over the line, so the goal was disallowed and a penalty kick given.
It seemed that the referee had no option under the laws of the game other than to show a red card to the defender for the handball for which the penalty had been given, but he astonished the entire crowd by only showing a yellow to the defender.
Justice was done, however, as Anton Phinn stepped up to decisively drill the ball past McBain from the penalty spot to give the young Glens a precious 1-0 lead.
The home side went their closest yet in the 66th minute as a diagonal ball over the head of Young picked out Dale Simeon, and his low shot beat Truesdale but rebounded from the outside of the post.
Simeon should have done better in the 73rd minute when he was given a free header in front of goal from a cross from the left, but he seemed to take his eye off the ball and missed the ball completely, to the relief of the Glencairn defence.
Tower’s best chance of the game arrived a minute later, as Kyle Gallagher robbed the ball off Davidson and ran through on goal.
Truesdale got enough of a touch on the ball to slow the momentum of the ball, allowing Roberts to sprint back onto the goal line to hook the ball clear.