Port rocked by first-half goal blitz
BELLSHILL .............. 5 PORT GLASGOW..3
A DISASTROUS first-half display from Port Glasgow at Rockburn Park put the visitors to the sword.
Their lackluster performance against Bellshill Athletic saw them go in 5-2 down at half-time.
Manager Stevie Wilson rang the changes for the second period and restored some pride to keep the scoreline respectable — but the damage had been done by that stage.
This defeat leaves Port in 12th position in the Third Division, with a win desperately needed against Lugar on Saturday to energise the season once again.
Wilson told the Tele: “We were just not competing in the opening half and our defending was clearly awful.
“All we could do at the break was to re-arrange things and get things stable, which we did and we at least ‘won’ the second half even though the result and the game was settled.
“There were no excuses as we put in a very good display the previous week against a strong Yoker side and we competed with them.
“We only had to make one change with Gary Pettigrew unavailable and Connor McGowan stepping in, so we were not making any changes to the system.
“But we just did not perform at all and it’s my job to get things right again.
“It’s no good scoring a lot of goals without picking up points.
“We scored three away from home and we do not even collect a point.
“We have a run of games coming up whereby we need to get some positive results, starting with the home game against Lugar, and we have two training nights this week to get things working out.”
Bellshill took control from kickoff and grabbed the lead 12 minutes in through Hayden Quinn when he was allowed a clean header following a long throw.
The lead was doubled only four minutes later when Bryan Tucker made a save only for the ball to be cleared by Roland Smyth and was deflected back by striker Kieran Markey to find the goal.
Port came back into the game when Jamie McKenna linked up with hitman Macaulay McArthur who rifled home.
From the re-start, though, Athletic instantly responded to deliver a sucker punch with long-ball tactics, allowing Markey to put the home side two goals ahead for the second time.
Poor defending was punished as Athletic grabbed a fourth when Markey was allowed too much time and space in the penalty area to punish the backline with a solid strike past Bryan Tucker for his hat-trick.
In a crazy first half there was still time for two further goals, with McArthur turning provider to set up Argyll McCoist for a well-taken tap-in to give Port hope.
However, more poor defending allowed Connor Cowan to net Athletic’s fifth with an unmarked header in the penalty area.
The Undertakers improved after making changes for the second half.
McKenna set up McCoist for his second goal of the afternoon and Keir Milliken creating late opportunities for McCoist and McKenna — although the game was beyond Port. On Saturday Port host Lugar Boswell Thistle with a 1.30pm kickoff.
Port Glasgow: Bryan Tucker, Euan Campbell, Joe Scullion, Roland Smyth, Craig McCormick (Jonny Gallacher, 65), Drew McCann (Josh McLaughlin, 46) Connor McGowan (Keir Milliken, 46), Kyle Black (Brad Cooper, 65), Jamie McKenna, Argyll McCoist, Macaulay McArthur. Subs not used: Connor McKenzie, Shaun Wigzell.
● Port Glasgow are sponsored by Dragon Soop, Dare2CreateIT, Caledonian Bar, Club Shop Direct and Temporal Travel.