Rusty South Lochaber given harsh lesson by Cambria

A rusty South Lochaber Thistle travelled to Stepps for their first game since November 23 and were given a harsh lesson in shaking off the festive rust, writes Peter Newman.

The Jags had begun the day top of the league despite the long lay off, but it was the home side who began stronger, opening the scoring after 15 minutes as a home side striker took advantage of hesitation in the SLT defence to bundle home.

Things got worse 16 minutes later Cambria as doubled their advantage.

Thistle were creating chances – flying winger Sean Noble and Lewis Morrison both went close with decent chances before skipper Martin Munro halved the deficit with a trademark finish just before half-time.

The second half kicked off and the Jags were pegged back to 3-1 down after seven minutes.

Things went from bad to worse for the visitors as Cambria struck again for 4-1 and fullback John Ferguson was forced off with damaged knee ligaments.

Six minutes later, rightback Shane Gillies drove forward and unleashed a thunderbolt for 4-2 but the home side weren’t done yet as Cambria fired home for a final score of 5-2.

SLT player/manager Alan Gray said: ‘We’re obviously very disappointed with the result and, frankly, we are better than we showed today. It’s been a long time without a fixture but I believe we can play much better.

‘Although there are many positives, we are struggling with injuries and it was very sad to see John forced off today.

‘Next week we head to undefeated league leaders East Kilbride so we will be working very hard on the training ground during the week to try to improve on this result.’