Cambuslang bounce back
Boss McColl hails his revitalised players
Cambuslang Rangers manager Paul McColl was delighted to get back on track ahead of the junior international break.
The Somervell Park boss branded last week’s 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Darvel, which ended their unbeaten run on their Super First Division season, as the worst in his time at the helm of the club.
However, Saturday’s 4-3 win at home to Irvine Meadow in front of a bumper crowd, which included ex-Rangers star Barrie McKay, kept Cambuslang in second place in the table.
And The Lang gaffer knows it was important to get a result as this weekend sees every junior club handed a free week due to the Umbro Quadrangular Trophy taking place.
“It was quite an entertaining game,” he said. “It was good to bounce back because last week was a sore one and you’ve not got a fixture next weekend.
“I heard McKay was in the crowd so he certainly got his money’s worth.
“He was there to watch his brother who is playing for Irvine.
“You had seven goals, three red cards, the referee was fairly decent but the linesman made some strange decisions. ”
Midfield man Dale Simeon was influential as ever for Cambuslang who had to come from behind to take the win.
His two goals either side of half-time had the game poised at 2-2 before he set up Chris Meikle who gave the Lang the lead.
Medda were reduced to 10 men after 60 minutes when Craig Buchanan was
shown a second yellow card for a rash challenge.
And things got worse for the visitors when their man Miller was given his marching orders shortly after.
Callum McRobbie made Irvine pay for their slack discipline as he got himself on the scoresheet before Lang’s Barry Eley was also sent off.
Irvine set up a nervy finish to the game with a goal late on but McColl reckons his team deserved to take all three points.
He said: “We were 2-1 down at half-time and you don’t want to start shouting at them because they were playing well.
“So I told them to relax and I knew the chances would come.
“McRobbie and Simeon were causing Irvine all sorts of problems and I said as long as we take our chances we’ll get back into this.
“And fair play to the players they put in a good performance and got us a result.
“Irvine Meadow are not a bad side. They have decent individual players who can hurt you.
“That’s the best we’ve played in a few weeks. Last week we had maybe two good performances but on Saturday we had eight or nine .
“In my opinion we should have scored a lot more.”
Commenting on the red cards, McColl added: “They were all for fouls if I remember rightly but there was not a dirty tackle in the game.”
The Lang will be hoping their Somervell Park pitch will hold up well with the amount of matches due to be played on it over the coming weeks.
The Republic of Ireland play the Isle of Man on the sacred Cambuslang turf tonight, Wednesday, before McColl’s men entertain Shettleston on October 21, Stonehaven in the Scottish Junior Cup and Renfrew.
And The Wee Gers boss insists they must make home advantage count but also take one game at a time to avoid complacency.
He said: “We are now a quarter of the way through the league season already and things aren’t going too bad at all.
“But we won’t get too carried away with ourselves. This league was always going to be tough.
“People might think Shettleston are poor but they won at the weekend and got off the bottom of the table so there is definitely no easy games.”