Locke, stock, barrel
EAST Kilbride’s promotion dream died on a miserable Fife afternoon as Cowdenbeath narrowly avoided dropping out of the fourth tier for the first time in their history, seeing off the brave Lowland League champions East Kilbride 5-3 on penalties.
The rain hammered down, but the home supporters among the 1676 crowd basked in the warm glow as they watched Liam Henderson hit the decisive spot-kick after the game had finished one goal apiece after extra time.
Home goalkeeper Jamie Sneddon was another hero for the League 2 side, pulling off the crucial penalty save from unfortunate East Kilbride striker Paul Woods, and their manager Martin Lauchlin summed up the dismay in the visitors’ dressing room.
“I’m bitterly disappointed,” he said. “It’s a lottery once you go to penalties. We started poorly but we got a foothold in the game in the second half and played some terrific football, and once we got the goal I thought we were in the ascendency. Woodsy had a great chance in extra time and I thought it was written in the stars, and then for him to be the one to miss the penalty is disappointing. I don’t know what to say. I’m gutted for him.
“Paul is quiet in the dressing room, very quiet. They put so much into the game, both sets of players did and it was always going to be tight. I’m not going to criticise anyone for missing a penalty, better players than Woodsy have missed a penalty, but I’m just disappointed for the players. They have shown today they are more than capable of playing at this level.”
Cowdenbeath had settled any early nerves as a nice lay-off from Dale Carrick allowed Fraser Mul- len to slam home from the edge of the area, and Carrick might have made it two shortly after as he headed a corner on to the bar.
But East Kilbride regrouped at the interval and levelled through former Cowdenbeath player Kieran Gibbons, who came back to haunt his old side after being relegated from League 1 with them last season.
Both sides pushed hard for the winner, with Joao Victoria coming close for the visitors and Robbie Buchanan forcing a save from Matt McGlinchey at the other end, but they couldn’t be split.
To the backdrop of stockcars tuning up behind the main stand, the Cowdenbeath players shrugged off their woeful penalty record – they had missed their last six – to score all five in the shootout.
For Gary Locke, a tumultuous personal season ended on a positive note, as it did for assistant Billy Brown, who flew home from his holiday in Magaluf for the game before jetting back out afterwards.
“It’s great to end on a high,” Locke said. “I don’t want to go into too much about what happened earlier in the season [at Raith Rovers], but I’ve got my own thoughts on it. I came to Cowdenbeath and saw it as a challenge, and it got me back involved in football which was great. The chairman said to me just to win the play-offs. I’m delighted to keep them in the league.”