All good things come to those who wait
South Lochaber Thistle 3 Westerlands ‘B’ 1 Greater Glasgow Premier League Division One
Like watched pots and elephant pregnancies, it has been a long time coming - but South Lochaber Thistle (SLT) finally secured a win in 2022, writes Peter Newman.
Welcoming Westerlands AFC to the Jags’ new home ground of Claggan Park, this fixture saw tenth hosting ninth.
Thistle put out as close to a full strength side as they have been able to recently, welcoming back captain Martin Munro as well as stalwart centre half Kieran Lopez and local hero Iain MacLellan to the starting 11.
The first half hour was evenly balanced as the visitors - two points ahead of the home side but having played an additional eight games - gave a good account of themselves.
However, Munro was chomping at the bit after his long suspension and it was he who broke the deadlock. MacLellan and Munro put together some intricate one-twos and the skipper made no mistake in opening the scoring.
Ten minutes later the midfield pair of veteran Dave Forbes and galloping partner Andy Maclean combined to tee the striker up.
A crafted through ball from Forbes was gathered by Maclean who nosed ahead of the defender to cut it back for MacLellan to put the Jags 2-0 to the good.
With only three minutes remaining in the first half, SLT moved to a commanding 3-0 lead as Munro cut in from the left hand side and bent the ball in to the corner.
Early in the second half, a punched clearance in the home side’s box ricocheted about and a Westerlands player pounced to reduce the arrears.
Despite the visitors having a goal chalked off for kicking the ball out of Ryan Boomer’s hands, 3-1 was the final score.
Speaking afterwards, SLT manager Alan Gray said he was relieved more than anything.
‘It was evident we were playing decent football but that we were making silly errors and getting punished,’ he commented.
‘Welcoming Munro, MacLellan and Lopez back was huge for us, but alongside them, John Ferguson, Stevie Neil and impish full back Sean Noble were all outstanding.
‘It was also excellent to see newer players like Roberto Rodriquez-Santos and debutant Chris Kyle playing well.
‘Overall, it was good to get the monkey off our backs and ought to stand us in good stead for the visit of table-topping St Pats FC this week.
‘Thanks as well to Sunny’s Sports Bar for the post match hospitality.’
▎ Fort William FC’s match at Turriff United was postponed due to team members and management still testing positive for Covid. This weekend the team travel to play Inverurie Loco Works.