Carluke Rovers made the long four hour journey down to Campbeltown today for this West of Scotland League game. It was a lovely day for football with quite a strong breeze into the faces of the Carluke Rovers players in the first half. The grass pitch looked well albeit the grass was a tad long.

It was to be a great start for Carluke when from the kickoff they moved up the park with the ball finally finding the feet of James Miller. Ho took a second to set himself and then hit a curling shot over the keeper and into the Campbeltown net. 0-1 to Carluke with not even a minute on the clock or a Campbeltown player touching the ball. Including the Keeper!.

Although playing into the wind Carluke looked comfortable and were playing the ball out from the back and picking their passes. However in the 9th minute a mistake in central defence gave the ball away to Calum Ellis and the lively No10 managed to cut the ball across the goal allowing Campbeltown’s Maciej Romanowski to slot it home. 1-1.

This was a blow to Carluke but rather than let the heads go down they continued to play in a controlled manner trying to unlock the Campbeltown defence. In fact it didn’t take The Rovers long to regain the lead when from a corner in the 16th minute the ball failed to be cleared before midfielder Steven Logan got his foot to it and knocked it over the line to make It 1-2 to Carluke.

Campbeltown always looked dangerous on the break and had a couple of busy forwards. With the wind at their back they were always a threat in that first half. It was one such occurrence when an innocuous long ball from their defence eluded the Rovers rearguard and was pounced on by Callum Ellis who coolly slid it past Josh McIntyre in the Rovers goal to level up the scores again at 2-2.

Carluke should have been in easy street at this point but two mistakes at the back were roundly punished. In fact Campbeltown could have taken the lead when Ellis broke the offside trap and had a run on goal but he was thwarted by a great save by McIntyre.

Then in 38 minutes Carluke could have regained the lead when good work down the right wing saw the ball crossed to James Miller. He collected the ball, swiveled and hit a volley from 20 yards which just missed the far post with the Campbeltown goalie rooted to the spot.This was to be the last action of the half with the scoreline poised at 2-2.

Carluke knew if they got a good start to the second half they could take advantage of the wind and further impose themselves on Campbeltown. This is exactly what transpired when in the 46th minute, after another good spell of passing, the ball was knocked to centre back Ross Girdwood. He drove into Campbeltown’s half unchallenged and then decided to have a shot from 35 yards. The ball flew into the top right hand corner giving the Keeper no chance and the Rovers lead was restored. 2-3.

As it transpired, following this goal, Carluke continued to control proceedings passing with confidence and authority. However the knew that they needed a fourth goal and it duly arrived in the 66th minute.

Following good play in the midfield again Olly Grenfell picked out the run by Jamie Henderson and threaded through a greatly timed pass. The striker had beaten the offside and ran through on goal before hitting a thunderous drive into the roof of the net. This made the score 2-4 and gave Carluke the breathing space their play had merited.

This effectively ended the game as a contest with the Carluke goal never really threatened in the second half. All in all a good result for Rovers which they hope to build on this coming Tuesday night against Newmains at home in the John Cumming Stadium.

Match Report by Stevie Kane and Photos courtesy of Garry Simpson.