Pupils suffer self-inflicted wounds
The McFadyen-sponsored Campbeltown Pupils were simply out-muscled by a team recently rejuvenated by a plethora of new signings. Accepting this, they also contributed massively to their own downfall by poor retention of the ball. Even so, given the margin of the final scoreline, the visitors managed to dominate the first 45 minutes of this cup tie, starting on the front foot while in receipt of a strong following breeze. First, Gary Grumoli, then Donald McCallum brought out the best in the home goalkeeper, forcing Glenburn’s last line of defence to make telling saves during the first quarter of the match. With the Pupils’ goalkeeper almost a spectator, Martin McCallum pushed forward to strike the crossbar with an in-swinging corner. This was before he was again denied when shooting wide as the home goalkeeper did well to narrow his approach on goal. At last the visitors made the breakthrough, when Donald McCallum was unceremoniously upended in the box and Gary Grumoli duly scored from the resultant spot kick. However, it went horribly wrong for the visiting side, as within five minutes the scores were level. The root cause could be called a self-inflicted wound, the ball given away from the Pupils’ own throw-in. The recipient of the error wasted little time before squaring the ball across goal, the result being a simple tap in and equaliser massively against the run of play. Worse was to follow. The visitors once more gifted possession on the stroke of half-time, an untimely error that was punished ruthlessly by the home side with a fine curling finish into the roof of the net. Unbelievable, at this point the Pupils’ goalkeeper hardly had a save to make, yet his side somehow managed to turn into a goal behind at the interval. Like the first half, the Pupils started the second period on the front foot when a Ryan McConnachie shot was turned onto the underside of the crossbar by the home goalkeeper. With 68 minutes on the clock, the visitors were ‘mugged’ again, this time by an interception from a slack pass across the back four. Text book instructions ignored, the home forward had the easiest of tasks to run in on goal and steer the ball behind a completely stranded Alastair Ferguson. Not quite game set and match, but nothing seemed to go the way of the visitors; it was confirmed when a powerful McConnachie header cannoned of the upright after a fine near-post run. The home side finally put the result to bed with a late penalty kick, although this was icing on a cake that was unfortunately baked in Campbeltown. On a day best forgotten, Ellis Robertson and Keith Mitchell were best for the Pupils. Ross Brown, Kyle Colville and Finn Scott also appeared from the subs bench to try to stem the incoming tide. The Pupils will benefit from this outing, if not by the result, then at least from their first game in almost five weeks. Campbeltown Pupils play away to Hillington tomorrow.