Farmer’s Boys seal deal over Port Glasgow

Mick Hydes

Neilston made easy work of their passage into the second round of the West of Scotland Cup against fellow Central League One side, Port Glasgow.

The Farmer’s Boys were struggling defensively personnel-wise with three central defenders out in the shape of Ross Gardiner and Keiran McDade to injury and Paul Young to suspension, although they coped admirably with Allan Diack standing in with a strong performance at centre-half.

Co-manager Martin Campbell spoke to Express Sports straight after the tie.

He said: “We were comfortable after a close first half, but after the break we stepped it up a fair bit and when they went down to ten men that eased the situation. We looked like we could have scored goals from a whole host of different areas and it was good to see three different goal-scorer’s and we took the chances well.

“As it was a cup game then it was a good marker to beat a team that are not far behind us in the league and especially good to do this at our own park.

“There were a lot of good performances out there today and I thought Allan Diack and Simon McBryde stood out today and Stephen Docherty turned in a fine captain’s performance although we were strong all over the park today and we look forward to another home match next week against Lesmahagow and look to get three more league points and move up the league.”

Craig Patterson grabbed the first goal with a header from Alan Frizzell’s free kick on the half hour.

Port threatened from set pieces with Ritchie Cooper and Paul Coyle going close with Cammy Sinclair called into action in the home goal.

Stephen Docherty added the second after Craig Beaton pushed away Frizzell’s initial effort just after the hour mark for his first goal of the season and Conor McKenzie then saw red for Port for dissent.

Paul Stewart grabbed the third eight minutes from the end to put the tie beyond any doubt.

Neilston: Sinclair, Convery (Milne 44), Payne, Clark, Diack, Docherty, Frizzell ( McStay 70), McBryde, Patterson ( Fletcher 85), Stewart, Lovering.

Subs not used: Dow and Fitzpatrick.