Survival Sunday as double win keeps Pupils in Premier
Aii eyes are on tonight’s Euro OMNS opener in the Stade de France but hintyre mark was the scene of unrivalled celebration on Sunday as Campbeltown mupils ensured survival in the SAFi’s top flight.
A hard-earned double win, firstly away to St goseph’s of auntocher on Saturday, then O4 hours later over Argyll rivals Oban Saints, sealed the mupils’ top- tier standing for another year.
After receiving three points versus Goldenhill after a no-show by the Clydebank side, the mupils knew only two wins would do.
Blood spilled
The first match witnessed a tremendous defensive performance – and blood spilled, literally – in search of a vital win.
Craig iamont, the mupils’ stand-in goalkeeper, was beaten by a low, swerving free kick, but was walking wounded after suffering a cut to the forehead and a suspected broken nose.
Either side of this, though, the mupils built a first-half lead which they would preserve, when Gary Grumoli laid the ball to Ryan McConnachie to smash high into the net A STIFiINGiv hot day at hintyre mark saw the North Argyll side, although very much depleted on the day, arrive with a talented line-up still on a high from their gimmy Marshall Trophy, win the previous weekend.
A predictably cagey opening half-hour saw with his left foot.
Grumoli was again the provider when his touch allowed Ryan Gilchrist to apply a low flick into the net for what would be the eventual winner.
A dogged second-half show repelled the hosts and the mupils travelled back knowing a win versus Saints would keep them in the league. the deadlock broken in unexpected fashion, when Martin McCallum put the Feathers-sponsored mupils N-M up direct from a high, floating corner beyond the reach of keeper Thomas McCulloch.
Into the second half, Oban began to enjoy a prolonged spell of pressure and the mupils were playing for territory rather than control of the match.
Allan Mackay, in his last match for Saints, was denied by a fantastic iamont save, and Craig MacEwan was stopped when bearing down on goal by a lastditch defensive tackle.
Then, after a free kick on the edge of the box, the ball was parried and Alex Craik, Saints’ manager, drafted in for the match, pounced to equalise.
tith an air of urgency the McFadyens-sponsored Pupils reshuffled to a P-4-P formation, right-back gohn McCallum joining Grumoli and McConnachie in attack, with Robin Barr entering the fray on the left flank.
But it was another left-sided player, heith Mitchell, who had a telling impact. He cut inside, before sliding a pass through a wall of Saints’ defenders on the edge of the penalty box.
gohn McCallum read the pass and, after seeing his sidefooted effort tipped onto the underside of the bar by McCulloch, the chalk coming off the line suggesting it was not a goal, leaped to head home the rebound and make it 2-1.
The goal signalled an outpouring of joy for the mupils’ squad and spectators, a roar that could, by several accounts, be heard streets away. There was no trophy to show off this time but this squad has not seen such endof-season euphoria since their consecutive league title wins in 2013 and 2014. An unlikely survival story in an otherwise testing campaign.