Shawlands hit for six by super Saints
‘ The passing and running off the ball was excellent’
Shawlands Oban Saints of the match with illness forcing Martin Bonar out of the squad, Allan Mackay withdrew for family reasons and Keith Millar was on holiday. However, Alex was able to name the same starting 11 which knocked East Kilbride Rolls Royce out of the West of Scotland Cup last week and still have Ross Maitland, Shaun MacIver, Dougal Graham and himself on the bench.
The D & K Lafferty-sponsored Oban side started strongly with Donnie Campbell forcing Shawlands goalkeeper and team captain Anthony Curran to palm a stinging drive round his right hand post in the first minute. From the resulting corner, Curran punched clear but only as far as Scott Maitland who fired in a low shot narrowly wide of the keeper’s left hand post.
The movement and interplay of the Saints front three of Lewis Cameron, Dean Smith and Craig MacEwan was already posing problems for the Shawlands defence, which sat deep also allowing space for Donnie Campbell and Willie Gemmell to push forward from midfield.
The Saints passing opened up the Shawlands defence time after time and it was only going to be a matter of time before they opened the scoring.
The visitors eventually made the breakthrough in the 36th minute when Lewis Cameron and Dean Smith linked up on the edge of the Shawlands box to slip in Donnie Campbell for a tidy right foot finish past the hopelessly exposed keeper Curran.
The lead was extended just three minutes later when David McArthur made a terrific run up the right wing and delivered a dangerous low cross to the near post where Craig MacEwan was quickest to react, guiding the ball past the despairing dive of the Shawlands keeper and into the bottom corner of the net.
Saints ended a dominant first half performance with another Donnie Campbell shot in time added on for stoppages, which keeper Curran saved comfortably.
Manager Alex Craik sent out the same 11 to start the second half looking for an early goal to kill the game and warning them that complacency would be the biggest threat to their lead.
Shawlands adopted a higher defensive line in the second half which had the desired effect of keeping the Saints attack at bay for the first 10 minutes with the game going through a relatively quiet spell.
Dean Smith tried his luck with a shot from the edge of the box which was deflected behind for a corner. Lewis Cameron’s outswinger from the right was punched clear by the Shawlands keeper but the ball was quickly returned by Paul Kerr.
Penalty kick Paul picked out Dean Smith who turned neatly on the edge of the box but his progress was arrested just inside the area giving referee Stuart Cormack an easy decision to award a penalty kick.
Donnie Campbell accepted the responsibility for the spot kick and calmly sent Anthony Curran the wrong way to give Saints a 56th minute three-goal lead.
A sloppy pass from Thomas McCulloch almost gave Shawlands an unlikely foothold in the game but after making a good interception, Kevin Mooney steered his shot wide of target, much to the relief of the Saints keeper.
The Oban side scored the goal of the match in the 67th minute. Good pressing in midfield by Willie Gemmell won possession inside the Shawlands half. Willie then strode purposefully forward and picked out Donnie Campbell on the edge of the Shawlands box. Donnie took a touch to his right opening up space for him to curl a delightful right foot shot into the postage stamp corner past the stationary keeper for his second consecutive hat-trick.
Manager Craik rang the changes shortly afterwards withdrawing Dean Smith, Lewis Cameron and David McArthur, and replacing them with Shaun MacIver, Ross Maitland and Dougal Graham who was making his first competitive outing of the season after recovering from injury.
Two minutes later Shaun MacIver made his first telling contribution, bursting into the Shawlands box before being cynically brought down by a heavy challenge by goalkeeper Curran. Mr McCormack immediately pointed to the spot and while Shaun recieved treatment for his injuries issued a yellow card to the Shawlands keeper. Donnie Campbell comfortably converted his second penalty kick of the game to make the score 6- 0 to the visitors.
Despite the warning, complacency finally cost Saints a clean sheet in the 84th minute when Mark Watt pounced on a loose ball in midfield and, catching central defensive pair Jamie Graham and Dene Cassells square, rounded Thomas McCulloch to give the home side a consolation goal.
Recovering from this minor set back, Saints went in search of a seventh goal but were denied right at the death when a cheeky Craig MacEwan back header from a Ross Maitland cross was headed off the line by Paul McGowan.
The match, which had started in heavy rain and ended in bright sunshine, was brought to an end by referee McCormack whose task was made easy by both sides who played the match in good spirit throughout.
Manager Alex Craik said: ‘I thought we played some good football today. The passing and running off the ball was excellent. The boys are working hard for each other and it’s now starting to pay dividends.’