Fine first half sees Pupils wrap up season with win
Campbeltown Pupils produced a pulsating first-half performance to beat Glenvale in their final match of their inaugural West of Scotland Football League season.
The home side held off significant pressure from the visitors in the second period to seal a precious three points and lift themselves off the bottom of WoSFL Division Four.
Starting in a 3-5-2 formation, the Pupils lined up with Kenny Kerr and Conner Brown at left and right full back, with John McCallum as sweeper in behind Ellis Robertson and Lee Allen.
Midfield trio Michael McKinlay, Stuart Crossan and Donald McCallum battled hard in the opening stages for dominance and after helping fend off a few Glenvale forays, Donald McCallum set Calum Ellis free and the 16-year-old striker stayed calm to slot the ball low beyond the Glenvale keeper with his right foot.
The McFadyens Contractorssponsored Pupils doubled their lead around the half-hour mark when Ellis profited from some tenacious work by Kerr, who advanced into the box, won a challenge and cut the ball back to the young striker who curved the ball neatly into the keeper’s bottom left-hand corner.
Glenvale looked rattled and an errant cross-field pass in defence nearly allowed Ellis in for his hat-trick but the Pupils had to be content with a twogoal lead at half-time.
Into the second half, the Feathers Inn-sponsored Pupils had to tread the fine balance between defending a lead and building on it. Ellis had another chance to make it three when he took a lovely chipped ball from the right flank by captain-for-the-day Crossan, but he couldn’t quite connect with his head and the glancing effort went wide of goal.
Glenvale had a good chance to pull one back with a header, but keeper Alasdair Ferguson held on to the effort.
Glenvale did pull one back when their substitute forward turned his marker to whip a shot high into the net from close range.
The away side continued to probe for an equaliser but Ellis, with his strike partner Sean Grady, tried to hold up the ball and give the Pupils precious territory.
Some last-ditch interventions were required at times, including from sweeper John McCallum who nicked the ball from the feet of an onrushing
Glenvale striker to deny the latter a free shot at goal and a possible equaliser.
Substitutes contributed much to the Pupils’ efforts in the latter stages with Fraser MacBrayne, Cameron Wylie and Ryan Shields doing a great job to pivot across and press the ball in their respective positions as the visitors probed for an opening in the final stages.
Impressively, the Pupils saw out the final minutes in composed fashion, keeping the ball in the corner and forcing the Paisley visitors into rushed passes forward, to no avail.
The three points were long-awaited for the home players and fans who hadn’t seen a win at Kintyre Park since September.
The majority of the Pupils’ points have been picked up on their travels.
It was encouraging for a young squad to seal the win under considerable late pressure and a positive marker for next season when league restructuring could see the team take on new teams and travel to new grounds of ex-junior level clubs, another potentially exciting chapter for the community club.