Forward planning paying off for Kilby
COWDENBEATH .................................... 0 EAST KILBRIDE ...................................... 6
Andy McGilvray
Mick Kennedy says strengthening East Kilbride’s forward line has paid off in spades as they thumped Cowdenbeath in the South Challenge Cup fifth round on Saturday.
Kilby eased into the quarter-finals with a thumping win at Central Park, with a 2-0 half-time lead and four more goals scored in the second half.
Tiwi Daramola got them off to a flier in 26 minutes, followed by Nathan Flanagan 12 minutes later.
Robert Thomson added a third in 51 minutes, with Daramola bagging his second of the game four minutes later.
Sub John Robertson got in on the act with Kilby’s fifth in 75 minutes, finishing from a tight angle, and netted again in 80 minutes to complete the rout.
Kennedy said: “Anybody who watched us up until Christmas would say there was maybe an overreliance on wide players, though we were dominating games, and that we needed to get a bit more attacking intent through the centre of the pitch.
“That’s why we brought in Tiwi,
Thomson and John, to be fair, and I think if you look at our games in the last few weeks they have all contributed massively, in terms of goals.
“That’s really what we brought them in for, and it has worked out.
“It creates a bit of momentum, which I think is important.”
While Kilby have been scoring goals for fun on their synthetic surface at K-Park, Kennedy was slightly concerned about heading to Fife to play on Cowdenbeath’s grass pitch.
He explained: “I think simply because of the style of play we’ve got, I think you’re always a wee bit concerned about the grass pitches at this time of the year, because you don’t know what the surface is going to be like.
“It was a stereotypical end of January, start of February sort of day, windy and rainy.
“But we were excellent. In the first five minutes, once we got adjusted to playing against the wind we were pretty strong, pretty dominant.
“We had a lot of control in it, loads of control, and I was really pleased.
“That game, and going to Broomhill and stuff like that [was a worry], because I know that’s playing on another grass pitch.
“Those were games when I looked at the fixtures that I thought would be interesting, to see how we adapt to them.
“But we stuck to the game-plan and our philosophy and we were excellent.
“For a full 80 minutes I thought we were really strong.”
Kennedy moved during the week to make Portuguese midfielder Joao Balde’s move permanent and was delighted to get the deal done for the 22-year-old, who went straight onto the bench.
He said: “When Joao left we wanted to try and get him back, and the opportunity arose.
“I had been speaking to Joao a lot, and to Arbroath manager Jim McIntyre, and the decision was made.
“He had a lot of options, but because he had been here previously and enjoyed his football, we had a really good relationship with him and he felt he wanted to come back.
“It’s perfect for us. He was a massive asset in the time he was here.”