Crying foul on fixtures
Lang boss Paul fears potential carve-up
Paul McColl has revealed his fears that the fixture list could scupper his team’s bid for promotion.
Lang remain top of the Central League First Division on goal difference after Saturday’s dramatic 3-3 draw with Forth Wanderers.
With Larkhall and St Roch’s breathing down their neck, it could go right to the wire.
And with Lang’s fate out of their own hands, McColl is relying on one of the chasing teams to drop points along the way.
He would have thought that would happen when the pair face each other before the end of the season but the SJFA may yet make that the last game of the league season.
And the prospect has left McColl raging.
He said: “That would be a total carve-up.
“It could work out they just need a draw or something like that. That should never be their last game.
“You never know, this might be irrelevant but it should not have come to this. The authorities should have made sure they played each other this week.
“Perhaps if we had won on Saturday I would not be moaning as much. We just need to win our next three games to give ourselves a chance.”
Those who arrange the fixtures were not the only ones to leave McColl fuming this week.
He also blasted the referee for his performance in the epic draw with Forth at the weekend.
Lang had been 3-1 down shortly after half-time but two free-kicks from Gebbie, the second deep in injury time,
salvaged a draw. But the ref took centre stage, sending off Jordan Morton for Lang, another Forth player and two of Forth’s coaches, one of whom was shown two red cards.
McColl said: “It was a great game but was totally ruined by the referee, he should never ref again.
“I have actually never seen anything like it. It was the same for both teams.
“He’s sent Jordan Morton off for nothing, same as their player. He’s shown five red cards and there wasn’t a bad tackle in the match.
“It was a good game for the neutral. We were terrible in the first half, really poor, but then in the second we were really good.
“Forth were decent, they played really well. The first couple of goals were awful but fair play to the lads, they came back really well and got the equaliser.
“To be honest, there was a couple of injuries but if I was on the other side I might not have been happy with the injury time that was played.”
Next up for Lang is a short trip to Thorniewood who are in good form at the moment.
With no more home games, Lang must pick up nine points fron nine on the road to give themselves the best opportunity of being promoted.
And McColl knows that will not be easy.
“Thorniewood have been going well just now, apart from losing to Bellshill on Saturday. We just need to win our games and if we had on Saturday we would have had a right good chance.
“Right now we’re just focussing on Thorniewood, who are one of my old teams. They are good guys at that club but you can’t expect any favours in football.”
McColl also praised the supporters who turned out for the Forth game after the Reformer put in a rallying call to mark the final home league game of the season.
He said: “We appreciated the Reformer putting that in and it was good to see so many people out supporting the team.
“It was a smashing game for them to watch as well.”