Thistle knocked out of President’s Cup
South Lochaber Thistle started the new year with a home defeat to GSC Amateurs in an ill-tempered President’s Cup quarter final fixture.
The Kinlochleven outfit began with a strong 11 on the park with Sean Noble picking out long-time partner Keir Kennedy with five minutes on the clock for the pacy forward to open his account.
Things stayed that way for the next half hour as the Jags put together chance after chance but failed to capitalise.
The visitors punished such profligacy by equalising before Kennedy turned provider, picking out his fellow striker after an inventive dummy by Noble allowed Archie Gillies to score, putting SLT 2-1 ahead with only three minutes left of the half.
However, the first half drama had not yet ended. Talismanic captain Martin Munro was scythed to the ground and, in the ensuing melee, was dismissed from the field along with an opponent, meaning both sides were reduced to ten men.
As the second half began, the Jags tried to take advantage of the extra space. Noble finally added to his season’s tally from open play, the full back gobbling up a pass from Lewis Campbell and converting to put Thistle 3-1 ahead. Sadly, this was the last of the good news for the home side. GSC built on Thistle’s sense of injustice as decisions by the referee appeared to infuriate them and, without their skipper and with the loss of Campbell to injury, the Glaswegians scored three, quick fire goals to book their place in the semi final and wrap up the tie 5-3.
Manager Alan Gray said: ‘This was a very hard result to take. We are a better side than we showed today and we will be looking for a big response in attitude and application from the players next week. We were without assistant Albie Robertson, who is isolating due to Covid, and Rebecca Small and I missed him from the touchline.
‘We, and everyone at the club, wish him a swift recovery.'