Ferguson’s 10-minute hat-trick rescues Kilby
EAST KILBRIDE ..................................... 4 GALA FAIRYDEAN ROVERS ............... 2 Scott Ferguson scored a 10-minute hat-trick at the end of the first-half to haul East Kilbride out of trouble against Gala Fairydean Rovers.
But Kilby gaffer Mick Kennedy says the forward should have netted five goals in a stunning spell in front of goal.
The hosts were left shell-shocked after falling 2-0 behind inside the opening 11 minutes, courtesy of strikes from Ethan Dougall and Ben Reilly for Gala.
But Ferguson pulled one back in the 40th minute, before firing in a second two minutes into first half stoppage time and then netting a penalty in the fifth minute of added on time to complete an incredible turnaround.
Nathan Flanagan’s strike four minutes into second half stoppage time completed the win for the Lowland League leaders.
But Kennedy insists man of the match Fergie should have recorded an even more impressive goals haul.
He said: “It was an extremely quick hat-trick from Scott.
“But he could have scored five goals in that time, to be honest, because he had two other good opportunities that he didn’t take.
“I still wasn’t happy at half-time. From about 30 minutes in, we were comfortable and we should have won the game more comfortably.
“It was an exciting game to watch but I’d rather it was more comfortable than it was.”
Following a 4-2 defeat at home to Hearts B in their last outing on November 25, it looked like it wouldn’t be Kilby’s day again after the 12thplace side silenced the K-Park crowd in some horrendous playing conditions.
However, Kennedy insisted he knew his team had it in them to turn the game around and avoid a repeat of the Hearts result.
He added: “I was still really confident we would win the game at 2-0 down because we still looked threatening.
“We just have that wee habit right now of losing silly, slack goals and we are maybe a bit over reliant on our quality at the top end of the pitch.
“Our goalkeeper, Chris Truesdale, injured his ankle and missed out, so we had our under-20s goalkeeper [Scott Cowie] playing in his first competitive game of football.
“He didn’t make any mistakes but it just changed the dynamics of how we played because Chris is so good with the ball at his feet.
“That took a bit of adjusting, but in the second half it was total domination from us and Gala didn’t have a shot on goal.”