Shock as Glens bow out

It was an afternoon of frustration for The Glens’support as they saw their side dominate the West of Scotland Cup tie with Ashfield for long spells.

But they lost sloppy goals towards the end of both halves due to individual defensive errors and the referee also made many glaring mistakes.

Play was mostly going towards the Ashfield goal in the first half but the home side took the lead in the 39th minute. The cross from the right found Paul Maxwell in acres of space on his own right in front of goal and he simply couldn’t miss with his header.

Keeper Jack Baker beat away an angled shot by Steven Dymock in the 45th minute, resulting in another corner which led to Ashfield’s second goal. The cross from the left was flicked on at the near post, and once again Paul Maxwell got away from his marker to place his free header into the net.

As the match moved towards the hour mark, Ashfield dropped increasingly deeper into their own half and Glencairn had almost complete territorial domination.

In the 62nd minute Del McNab was kicked in the head inside the penalty area by a high boot. But the ref awarded an indirect free-kick for dangerous play instead of a penalty kick and Craig Palmer drilled his shot into the wall.

A couple of minutes later Glencairn pulled one back as Gary Smith curled home a free-kick and they should have had an equaliser but his and Craig McGregor’s headers went wide.

It was game over in the 86th minute as McGregor slipped near the halfway line to allow Billy Stevenson to run clear through on goal and score.