Pupils lose out on league duty to talented Kilsyth

Kilsyth Athletic 5 Campbeltown Pupils 2 WoSFL Division Four

Campbeltown Pupils lost out on league duty last Saturday away to North Lanarkshire cracks Kilsyth Athletic.

Travelling to play at Duncansfield Park, the home of ex-junior side Kilsyth Rangers, the Pupils knew it wouldn't take much to improve on the side's last meeting, a 6-0 defeat at Kintyre Park on the opening day of the season.

And while the Pupils started out in reasonably competitive fashion in the opening 25 minutes, they once again found themselves 2-0 down by half-time, Kilsyth's number nine helping himself to a brace, first with a point-blank header, and then through a neat right-footed finish when left in space inside the box.

Worse followed for the visitors in the second half, with two more Kilsyth goals threatening to make an otherwise competitive game have the look of another rout.

Soon after, though, two moments of brilliance from Donald McCallum, playing as the visitors' lone striker in a 4-2-3-1 formation, salvaged some pride for the McFadyenssponsored Pupils side.

First, he dispossessed a Kilsyth defender and darted into the box before rounding the Kilsyth goalkeeper and slotting a low finish into the net with his right foot, and then blocked the home 'keeper's kick in open play and finished the ricocheted high ball on the volley, first time with his left foot, to make it 4-2.

With only minutes remaining, any seeds of doubt in the home ranks from McCallum's brace were stubbed out when Kilsyth scored a fifth, after a corner was turned home with a low right-footed finish, amidst a passive mass of Pupils defenders – an extremely disappointing and soft goal to lose for the Kintyre Park men on reflection.

The Feathers Inn-sponsored side entertain St Peter's at home tomorrow (Saturday) at 2pm.