Win in cup comes at a cost for Kilby
East Kilbride boss Mick Kennedy admits Saturday’s South Challenge Cup quarterfinal win over Ashfield came at a cost – with in-form striker Robert Thomson set for a spell on the sidelines.
The big striker felt his hamstring in Saturday’s 3-2 win at Ashfield, in which he scored the winner, and could be set to miss key games as Kilby look to close out the Lowland League title this month.
The West of Scotland League Second Division side made Kilby work for their semi-final clash with Tranent at the end of the month, twice pulling level before being edged out.
An own goal from the hosts and a John Robertson strike had EK 2-1 up at the break, and while Ashfield levelled for the second time in the game after 49 minutes, Thomson drilled home the winner in 72 minutes before hobbling off.
Kennedy said: “Robert went off injured on Saturday so we will need to see how that develops over the next few days.
“We are really starting to struggle for bodies now and it is getting ridiculous with the amount of injuries we’ve had this season.
“He has got an issue with his hamstring and we will need to have a proper look at it this week.
“It is not looking great.
“It was always going to be a difficult game playing on a community pitch. No disrespect to it, but the dynamics are very tight and challenging.
“It was difficult but we got through it. We were extremely good in the first half and we should have been out of sight, but we conceded from two set-pieces and it just made the game a bit more problematic than it had to be.
“That was about as strong a side as we could have put out.
“We had right centre midfielders playing in defence and that will probably be the same case for the next game.
“We had five defenders out injured or cup-tied at the weekend, so we are down to the bare bones in terms of numbers.”
Kilby were set to face Bo’ness United in the Lowland League Cup quarterfinals as the News went to press on Tuesday and also face a trip to East Stirlingshire on Saturday when they return to league business.
Just a few more wins are required, depending on results elsewhere, to wrap up the title with Kilby holding a commanding 12-point lead at the top of the table.
”It is just about getting points on the board and with teams playing each other around us – Tranent play Cumbernauld Colts pretty soon [Tuesday] and other teams could drop points – hopefully results go our way and we can get the league won as early as possible,” said Kennedy.
“By the weekend, we will hopefully have some players back and the cuptied players will be available again, obviously.
“East Stirling sat in and were wellorganised against us last time [in a 2-1 win for EK at K-Park] and I think Saturday will be quite similar.
“They are full of legs and endeavour and they were fairly impressive against us in the first game.”
Saturday’s clash at Falkirk Stadium is a 3pm kick-off.