Craig hails monarchs of the Glens as goal blitzgetsthejobdone
However, his inspirational words failed to bring about a fairytale storyline as Goliath gave David a bit of a battering.
Victory and a place in the hat when Glasgow City Council stage the fifth-round draw on Tuesday afternoon was assured by half-time.
By then the Glens were 4-0 to the good and the spectating throng on a bitterly cold afternoon would have been excused for thinking a right thrashing was looming for the hopelessly outclassed Jags.
The fact it didn’t can be attributed to an interval pep talk from Campbell that stirred his players into raising their game in tandem with Glenafton taking their foot of the gas and failing to reach the same standards after the break.
So the second period could be termed a mini-triumph for the Central Second Division outfit even if there was never the remotest chance of this fourth-round contest becoming a game of two halves through them staging a most dramatic of comebacks.
Indeed, it’s more accurate to say Thistle continued to be under the cosh for the most part and their goal only remained intact due to the visitors appearing to lose their earlier midfield fizz as well as a clinical edge in and around the penalty area.
Glens boss Craig McEwan declared himself satisfied with his team’s efforts in saying: “I thought we gave a very professional performance on what was a very difficult playing surface and all credit to the players for the way they went about their business.
“We came here with the job to do of getting into the cup’s last 16 so it’s job done.”
Any hopes of a Showpark shock lasted all of three minutes, which was the time it took for Glenafton to take the lead after a low driven Ryan Borris corner kick eluded a number of players at the near post but not Glens striker Chris Dallas, standing four yards out and he prodded the ball home for 1-0.
IT ONLY rubbed salt in the wounds that the strong-running frontman is a native of East Kilbride and a former player.
He said: “I stepped up to the Juniors here playing under Jimmy Kerr and Tony Gallagher so it’s pleasing to come back and score a goal and more so when finishing on the winning side. That’s us into the last 16 and if we keep playing as we are then it’s going to take a very good team to stop us.”
Dallas should have doubled his and Glenafton’s goal tally in 15 minutes when he blasted high over the crossbar with the goal at his mercy and shortly afterwards a rare home team attack saw Jags skipper Alan McFadden show decent pace to run past a couple of defenders and fire just over from 20 yards.
Defining moments can crop up even in one-sided encounters and one such instance occurred in 29 minutes when Thistle midfielder Aaron Connolly almost levelled matters against his former team with a 22-yard drive that skimmed off the greasy pitch and away from the reach of goalkeeper Brian McGarrity only to re- bound off the base of the post.
A hasty clearance led to the ball being shuttled to Cameron Marlow on the edge of the box and he showed delightful skill to flick the ball over his marker and turn to smash a volley past Jags goalkeeper David Millar.
THE stand-in keeper , only playing due to the unavailability of regular No.1 Chris Treacey, again picked the ball out of his net within minutes when another Glens attack yielded up a free kick.
Darren McGill curled sublimelyl into the top corner and a third goal in a blistering eight minutes spell duly arrived as the impressive Joe Andrew fired home from the edge of the box for a 4-0 scoreline.
Second-half talking points were a lot scarcer though Glenafton’s territorial dominance led to them twice more having t the ball in the net through D Daniel Orsi and Dallas only to be denied by an offside flag on each occasion.
And E.K.’s greater appetite for the fray contributed in no small way to to combative midfielder Ryan Carnwath picking up a second yellow card of the afternoon to leave his teammates playing out the closing stages with only ten men.
East Kilbride proved to be the only West Region faller on the day, with Maryhill and Hermes both getting through to the fifth-round stage with penalty kick shootout wins following replay stalemates against Fauldhouse United (1-1) and Hermes (2-2) respectively.
And contemplating a second bite at the cherry are Super First Division leaders Kilsyth Rangers for whom Gary Kelly and Paul McBride goals had forged a 2-0 lead at home to strongly tipped East Region opponents Bonnyrigg Rose who netted twice in the closing 25 minutes to earn a 2-2 draw.