Glencairn sign off on a sour note with cup exit
Glencairn’s season came to an end in disappointing fashion with a home defeat to Premier League giants Pollok in the Central League Cup last eight.
A healthy crowd gathered in the June sunshine to see if The Glens could extend their fixture list. However, with this tournament being Pollok’s only remaining hope of silverware for the the season, the highly motivated higher league side emerged with a deserved win over the 90 minutes.
The absence of 28-goal top scorer Gary Smith due to a holiday was a disadvantage for Glencairn, but they started the match in dramatic fashion by almost taking the lead after only 27 seconds. Stewart Hall’s cross from the right was met on the volley by Jamie Hamilton, with Pollok’s young goalie Scott Johnson making an excellent save to palm the ball round the post.
It didn’t take long for the visitors to assert their authority and the deadlock was broken in the 13th minute. Bryan Wharton’s free-kick was whipped into the penalty area where it was met on the volley by Ryan McGregor, and his sweet strike flashed into the net giving Scott McLellan no chance.
Glencairn went close in the 18th minute but Leyden’s attempted overhead kick flew over the crossbar.
Pollok were looking extremely lively in the front areas, and a darting run by Stefan McCluskey three minutes later looked like setting up a certain goal for Little, only for a brilliant last-ditch tackle on the goal line by Del McNab to save the day for Glencairn.
As the match moved past the half-hour mark Glencairn started to get more joy in forward areas, and Sean McCall’s cross was glanced narrowly wide of the target by Sean McGuire.
Glencairn weren’t able to find an equaliser during a post-interval spell of pressure and Pollok started to control the game again as Gary McCann picked out Stuart McCann with a cross from the right, McLellan making another fine save to deny the striker.
Pollok took a strong grip on the match as they doubled their lead in the 53rd minute. A low cross from the left came through to the unmarked Little who had an open goal to fire into from close range to make it 2-0 to the visitors.
And they effectively killed the match as a contest on 64 minutes. A through ball from the right caught the home defence short, leaving Stuart McCann in space to clip the ball past McLellan and make the scoreline 3-0.