New signings help Shotts sink Rangers
SHOTTS BON ACCORD.........................5 CAMBUSLANG RANGERS...................0
Paul Thomson
Shotts boss John McKeown was delighted to see debutant Rico Di Marco make his mark with the final goal in their thumping 5- 0 win over Cambuslang Rangers on Saturday.
The Bonny kept up their West of Scotland First Division title push with a five-star showing at Hannah Park, with five different players on the scoresheet.
Paul McGeough broke the deadlock in the first half before the floodgates opened after the break with Danny Burns, Kieran Campbell, Harry Kent and Di Marco all netting.
Di Marco has only just joined on loan from Lowland League East Kilbride, alongside Joe Sexton, but he made an instant impact after coming off the bench to help sink relegationthreatened Rangers and put Shotts within six points of leaders Petershill, with a huge eight games in hand.
McKeown said: “It was a really good performance in tough conditions.
“It was blowing a gale so we had to weather that in the first half and we managed to get our noses in front, without playing great.
“In the second half we took control and got a few more goals.
“Three of the subs we brought on scored, so it is always good as a manager when you do that.
“Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but our subs really impacted the game.
“Young Rico came on and played well and got his just rewards with a goal.
“Him and Joe Sexton both came on and looked really assured on their debuts so that was good.
“We’ve got three boys out injured at the moment and the midweek games will be coming thick and fast, so we had to get some young fit legs in.
“They are talented players as well and we are thankful to East Kilbride for allowing them to come out and help us.”
It was another big result as Shotts play catch up.
They are facing 12 games in the space of under six weeks and could find themselves in an incredible position if they pick up a run of results.
But McKeown knows it is far from straight forward, with a West of Scotland Cup semi-final with Darvel also on the schedule on April 7.
He said: “We are in a good position but only if we win those games. So everyone is staying focused.
“We are in a semi- final of the cup, we are in a good position in the league and we need to enjoy the good times in football.
“That can change quickly so we need to work hard and stay focused.” I am confident in the group of players we’ve got.
“Most people were tipping us for relegation at the start of the season in terms of our budget, but that is us officially safe and we are focusing on what is above us in the table.
“It is a small gap but there are so many permutations.
“Some of the group here know the situation we were in last season and how quickly things can change [when they were in a relegation battle], so that experience last season has been a valuable lesson to stop us getting carried away.”
The next test arrives on Saturday when they welcome fellow promotion hopefuls Ashfield to Hannah Park.
”It is another team in about us and doing really well,” said McKeown.
“We had a tough game there at the start of the season [3-2] but we managed to get the points.
”They are littered with ex-pros so it will be another tough game.”
Kick-off at Hannah Park on Saturday is 2pm.