Saturday 1 February 2014
Penicuik Park
Scottish Junior Cup 4th Round Replay
Penicuik Athletic
Starting XI | Bejaoui, Ross, Dickson, Young, Cunnison (c), Lister, Killin (Harris 77), Gay, Millar (Brigain 61), Barr, Montgomery (McPartlin 19)
Unused subs | Thomson, Hill
Pollok
Starting XI | Robertson, McLennan, McVey, Reilly, McGowan, McAleenan, Waddell, Andreoni, Barr, Diack, Easton
Subs | Barclay, McGillion, Bradley, Duncan
Goalscorer | Barr (81)
The replay went ahead after an early pitch inspection, but the underfoot conditions proved to be difficult. Penicuik started the game brightly and opened the scoring in the 6th minute when Ryan GAY took the ball off Barr and drove in on goal to lob keeper Robertson. Pollok struggled to get into the pace of the game and it was no surprise when Penicuik doubled their lead in the 36th minute. A corner from the right into the heart of the Pollok defence saw CUNNISON rise above the Pollok defence to head home into the far corner of the net. Penicuik continued to control the game with an excellent first half performance. Into the second half, and as expected, Pollok came out with all guns firing, but a resolute Penicuik defence coped with everything the visitors could throw at them. In the 55th minute a slight altercation off the ball ended with bookings for Ryan Gay and Mark McLennan. Then Penicuik had a strong claim for a penalty turned down by referee Kirkland.
HALFTIME | Penicuik Athletic 2-0 Pollok
Pollok started to apply the pressure and came close with strikes from Diack and McLennan. However in the 71st minute keeper Robertson pulled off a great one handed save to deny Penicuik. Four minutes later, a Gay free kick was headed by Greg Ross. His effort beat the keeper but crashed off the bar and was cleared. Pollok broke quickly from defence and only a last gasp tackle by Cunnison denied Richie Barr. In the 81st minute, Penicuik failed to clear their lines and the ball fell to BARR who turned quickly, but his half hit shot saw keeper Bejaoui slip and could only watch as the ball trickled past him into the far corner of the net. Then McLennan went on a surging run past four Penicuik players to lay the ball off to Diack. He returned the pass but McLennan’s strike was brilliantly saved by Bejaoui. Two minutes into injury time and a powerful run up the right wing by James McPartlin saw him lay the ball off to Brigain, but his strike curled inches past Robertson’s right hand post.
FULLTIME | Penicuik Athletic 2-1 Pollok
Penicuik Manager Craig Meikle said “We started the game really well and got at them like we wanted to do and fully deserved our 2-0 lead at half time. I was disappointed with the sloppy goal we lost as a result of a mistake in the middle of the park but because of the terrible underfoot conditions you must expect that mistakes will happen. We were under pressure for the last ten minutes of the game, but the guys showed huge character and at the end of the day we were worthy winners”.
Pollok Manager Tony McInally said “I am obviously disappoint we are out of the Scottish Cup, but congratulations to Penicuik. They started in the right manner and went two goals to the good. We started very poorly and you don’t win Scottish Cup ties by only playing for thirty minutes. I looked for a reaction in the second half and got that, but it was too little too late. If we had started at that tempo we would have won the game. You have to play for ninety minutes to win the game and that was apparent today”.