Thorn are stung on penalties and miss chance to go deep in the West of Scotland Cup

THORN ATHLETIC ................................... 2 CAMPSIE MINERVA ................................ 2

(Campsie Minerva win 5-4 on pens)

Thorn Athletic manager Johnny McEwan anticipated a stern test against a fresh opponent when they hosted Central Scottish AFL championship side Campsie Minerva in the West of Scotland Cup recently.

And so it proved as the Johnstone outfit suffered their first defeat of the season, losing 5-4 on penalties and being made to rue a series of missed opportunities in front of goal as the game slipped away from them.

The match finished 2-2 in normal time, before being decided in the cruellest of fashions from 12 yards.

McEwan said:“We should never have allowed the match to go to penalties with the number of chances we didn’t take.

“We were so wasteful in front of goal and it came back to haunt us.

“We created numerous clear-cut chances and didn’t look in any danger, but the more opportunities we passed up the more we gave Campsie encouragement.”

And Campsie Minerva are hardly a side in need of any encouragement

They went into the weekend’s fixture riding the crest of a wave, having won five consecutive games, only tasting defeat once all season and sitting second in the Central Scottish AFL Championship.

And they carried that momentum into the penalty shoot-out after snatching an equalizer against the run of play heading into the last quarter of the game.

McEwan added:“It was very frustrating to go out of the competition in that manner, but we only have ourselves to blame.

“We missed our first penalty which didn’t get us off to a great start and there was really no way back from that.”

Despite the result, there were certainly some positives to take into this weekend’s Caledonian Premier League match against Milngavie.

Thorn Athletic dominated large spells of the game and showed some real moments of individual quality throughout the match - including a thunderous long-range effort from captain Ryan Crawford to open the scoring.

But McEwan is fully aware that they’ll have to put the unfamiliar feeling of defeat behind them quickly with a hectic league schedule ahead of them in the coming weeks, starting with this Saturday’s match with Milngavie at the Garnock Community Campus.

He added:“We are playing catch-up in the league and we need to get points on the board before fixtures start falling foul of the weather.

“Milngavie have always been a tough nut for us to crack but hopefully we will have a few players back this weekend and we can take the game to them.

“We are still beset with injury problems but that means opportunities for other guys.”