First Silverware Of The Year Is Won At Denny

For a variety of reasons, Gowfers’ manager Ian Flaherty was forced to field a rather weakened side. Kevin Cumming, Dougie Craig and Euan Hall were all working, Robert Hendry, on holiday, Steven Narey and Wayne Morrison, both carrying injuries, and Gary Ogilvie, missing due to family reasons.

Jim Scott, newly signed from Kelty Hearts and Jon Kelly, returned from Rosyth, were both on from the start, and trialists Sean Muhsin and Steven Cook were drafted in to help out. While Sean was on from the start, Steven took one of the bench spots along with Collier, assistant manager O’Boyle and spare goalkeeper ‘Chipper’ Whyte.

Carnoustie did most of the early pressing and it was no surprise when they opened the scoring in only nine minutes. Voigt drove forward on the right, then picked out CONWAY, who took a touch before firing a great shot past O’Brian from 25 yards.

Voigt and Kelly both came close to doubling the Gowfers lead, but in 23 minutes St Johnstone got back on level terms when Barr set up KERR, who shot high into the top left-hand corner of the net from 20 yards.

However, just three minutes later Kelly released STEELE, who took the ball forward to the edge of the box before curling a great shot past O’Brian to put the Gowfers back in front.

In 37 minutes, Scott went down with a face injury, but was able to continue after treatment.

Half Time : St Johnstone XI 1 Carnoustie Panmure 2

For the second half, Carnoustie made three changes with McCafferty, Voigt and Conway making way for Whyte, Collier and Cook.

On the restart, the Gowfers continued to have most of the play and edged further ahead in 67 minutes when a Smith cross was missed by Saints’ ‘keeper and one of his defenders and KELLY had the easiest tasks to knock the ball home.

In 70 minutes, Carnoustie made a fourth change with Kelly being replaced by O’Boyle.

The assistant manager was quickly in the thick of the action and within a minute of coming on picked out COLLIER, who rolled the ball past the ‘keeper for number four.

In 81 minutes, the Gowfers made it five when a mistake by O’Brian, who had rushed from his line, allowed COLLIER to knock the ball between the ‘keeper’s legs into the empty net.

Three minutes later, it was six when MUHSIN collected a through ball from O’Boyle and took a couple of steps before hammering a great sot past O’Brian from 20 yards.

Next minute, O’Boyle was again the architect, this time playing the ball through to STEELE, whose fierce drive struck the ‘keeper, but still landed up in the back of the net.

Right on the final whistle, Steele returned the favour when he picked out O’BOYLE, who capped an excellent 20 minutes by netting from close-in and the Gowfers were through to face Dunipace in the final the following afternoon.

Line-Ups:

St Johnstone XI : O’Brian, Monaghan (Taylor 65), Wilcox, Fairbairn, Liddle, Barrett (Dodds 57), Barr, Smyth, Bee (Gay 81), Kerr, Graham

Substitute Not Used – McCallum, Smart

Carnoustie Panmure : McCafferty (Whyte 46), Muhsin, Scott, Bollan, Wilkie, Abbot, Steele, Smith, Kelly (O’Boyle 70), Voigt (Collier 46), Conway (Cook 46).

Match Report Courtesy Of Guide & Gazette Newspaper (Friday July 27th)

Click here to view photos from the game.