Defeat for Glens helps Buffs to promotion
Rutherglen Glencairn ... 1 Kilwinning Rangers ...... 4
Glencairn’s league season was wrapped up with a home defeat to a highly motivated Kilwinning side who came to the Celsius Stadium needing a win to keep their hopes of automatic promotion alive.
After an even start, with nothing to talk about in terms of goalmouth incident, Kilwinning took the lead in the sixth minute with the first serious attempt on goal.
A crossfield pass picked out the run of striker Ross Stewart, and he cut inside Josh McCorry before firing an accurate finish past JC Hutchison to make it 1-0 to The Buffs.
Perhaps that made the visitors feel it was going to be an easy afternoon for them, but they were made to think again a couple of minutes later as The Glens equalised.
Tony Fraser’s corner from the left was met by a front post run by top goal scorer Mark Batchelor, and his glancing header beat goalkeeper Adam Strain as it hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced in.
Kilwinning regained the lead in the 13th minute with a controversial goal. Dean Agnew’s cross from the left was controlled well in the middle by Ben Lewis.
He fired in a shot which was deflected into the path of Ricky Hanvey, who looked to be offside, but the flag stayed down and he fired home. The pace and trickery of Dean Agnew was now creating openings for The Buffs, and he turned away from his marker in the 22nd minute before firing wide.
Agnew continued to threaten and his dipping shot from 22 yards was watched by Hutchison and saved on the goal line.
He was denied again in the 27th minute with a full length dive by Hutchison to his left to parry away a curling goal-bound shot.
Full backs McCorry and Eadie were replaced by Peter Copland and Mark McHendry before the restart.
The Buffs’fans were calling for a penalty midway through the half as Stewart went down under a strong tackle by McGuire but the referee waved away the appeals.
The lead was increased in the 70th minute as the Glens failed to clear a bouncing ball, and Ross Stewart swivelled to fire home off the inside of the post. Dean Agnew got a reward for his fine work by pouncing on slackness and firing in Kilwinning’s fourth.