DUNIPACE TOURNEY SETS GOWFERS PRE-SEASON TEST
Bo'ness United 1 Carnoustie Panmure 3
For their opening fixture against Bo'ness United on Saturday afternoon, the Gowfers were rather short-handed with Scott Robertson, Robert Hendry and Daryn Smith all on holiday, and Kevin Steele and goalkeeper John McCafferty both working. One trialist was fielded between the sticks and a second was taken along as a spare.Scott Hunter and Brian Clark, who both played as trialists in the game against Arbroath, were on from the start as was new signing centre-half Jonnie Thompson. Bench spots went to Jim Collier, Steven Narey and Jim Scott.
The first real chance of the match fell to Bo'ness in eight minutes when a through ball from Mauchlin picked out Brown, but he squandered the opportunity by blasting his shot high and wide of the target.
In 13 minutes, it was Carnoustie's turn to come close when Conway tried to catch the 'keeper out with a snap shot from just outside the box, but Kirkwood had no trouble making the stop.
Five minutes later, the Gowfers came even closer still to taking the lead after Conway played a long free kick right into the Bo'ness goalmouth. Clark nipped in to get a touch, but the ball came back off Kirkwood's right-hand post and he was able to clear it away.
Carnoustie were doing most of the pressing and eventually opened the scoring in 33 minutes, albeit in a slightly fortunate manner. Kirkwood rushed from his line to deal with a passback from one of his defenders, but fluffed his clearance and MCLAUGHLIN rounded the stranded 'keeper before stroking the ball into the empty net.
Just five minutes later, the Gowfers doubled their advantage after winning a corner on the right. Muhsin swung the ball right into the goalmouth where Gaffney tried to get it away, but VOIGT got there first and headed home.
Straight from the centre, Bo'ness came close to pulling a goal back after Allison ran on to a through ball, but Newman rushed out to save bravely at his feet.
However, in 42 minutes, the Lothian side did succeed in reducing the leeway. A through ball from Allison picked out A. SCOTT, who unleashed a fierce shot from the edge of the box. Newman got a hand to it, but was unable to prevent the ball hitting the back of the net.
Half Time : Bo'ness United 1 Carnoustie Panmure 2
In 50 minutes, Bo'ness had a chance to level the tie when Morrison collected a pass from McCafferty and fired off a rocket shot, but Hall got across and blocked it away.Six minutes later, Carnoustie almost restored their two goal advantage when Voigt headed just wide from a Clark cross.
The Gowfers continued to press and in 58 minutes Fullerton challenged Voigt for the ball just inside the box. The referee adjudged the Bo'ness man to have played the ball with his hand and ran forward pointing to the spot. CONWAY took the kick and hammered the ball into the back of the net, sending Ward the wrong way.
Right on the final whistle, Carnoustie came close to notching a fourth when Conway took the ball almost to the bye-line before drilling it low and hard across the face of the goal and Collier, rushing in, just failed to get the necessary touch.
Seconds later, the referee brought the tie to an end and the Gowfers were through to Sunday's final for the second successive year. Their opponents would again be Dunipace, who defeated Yoker Athletic 3-0 earlier in the day.
Match Report Courtesy Of Guide And Gazette Newspaper
| STARTING LINE-UPS | |
| 1. Kirkwood | 1. Mark Newman (Trialist) |
| 2. Brown | 2. Steven Cook |
| 3. Fullerton | 3. Gavin Beith |
| 4. Gaffney | 4. Scott Hunter |
| 5. Tully | 5. Jonathan Thompson (C) |
| 6. Mullen | 6. Euan Hall |
| 7. Morrison | 7. Sean Muhsin |
| 8. McCafferty | 8. Brian Clark |
| 9. Allison | 9. Jon Voigt |
| 10. A.Scott | 10. Gary McLaughlin |
| 11. Mauchlin | 11. Aaron Conway |
| SUBS : | SUBS : |
| 12. Hutcheon (Replaced Mauchlin After 55 Minutes) | 12. James Collier (Replaced McGlaughlin After 78 Minutes) |
| 14. Young (Replaced A.Scott After 55 Minutes) | 14. Steven Narey (Replaced Cook After 74 Minutes) |
| 15. Muir (Replaced McCafferty After 74 Minutes) | 15. Jim Scott (Replaced Hall After 60 Minutes) |
| 16. Penman (Replaced Mullen After 45 Minutes) | 16. n/a |
| Sub 'Keeper - Ward (Replaced Kirkwood After 45 Minutes) | Sub 'Keeper - Michael Gourlay (Sub Not Used) |
| GOALS | |
| A.SCOTT (42) | MCGLAUGHLIN (33), VOIGT (38), CONWAY (58) |
| OFFICIALS & BOOKINGS | |
| Referee : D. McIntosh, Glasgow. | |
| None | None |