Championship is landed in fine style
DOUNE CASTLE ................................... 4 ROTHESAY BRANDANE ..................... 0
Doune Castle clinched the Caledonian League First Division title in front of the Moray Park faithful on Saturday with a comprehensive win over bottom-placed Rothesay Brandane.
The margin of victory could have been greater with the Castle repeatedly denied by the woodwork and goalkeeping heroics from Danes’ Ryan Leitch.
Two goals in either half were enough to seal the win and the trophy was presented at the end of the match to skipper Niall Mcclure.
The breakthrough came after 28 minutes when Andrew Gibson shrugged aside a defender and drilled a low ball across goal and Christopher Macdonald reacted quickest to sidefoot home from six yards for 1-0.
Castle remained in control for the rest of the half but struggled to create clear opportunities until Alan Inglis grabbed the important second goal seconds before the half-time break.
Inglis collected a loose ball to the left of the penalty area, cut inside and from 14 yards, placed a firm drive wide of Leitch and into the net.
In the second half, an overworked Rothesay defence were clearly wilting as they faced wave after wave of Castle attacks as Doune looked to win the title in style. The game became a contest between the Castle forwards and keeper Leitch.
And when Leitch was beaten, the post and the crossbar came to Rothesay’s rescue.
The crucial third goal eventually arrived after 68 minutes. Macdonald curled an inviting corner into the heart of the Rothesay penalty area and Inglis rose to power an unstoppable header high into the net from six yards.
Doune used all of their substitutes to sustain pressure on the beleaguered Rothesay defence and two of them Ross Macfarlane and Callum Smith - combined on 88 minutes to ensure Doune secured the First Division title in fine style when Macfarlane connected first-time with a Smith cut back to fire high into the net from 14 yards to make it 4-0.
Doune Castle: Davison, Gillespie (Mcrae), D Innes (Gillespie), Duncanson (Paterson), Nelson, Mcclymont (Macfarlane), Gibson (Macdougall), Mcclure, Inglis (Smith), Macdonald, A Innes (Smith)