Carluke Rovers made the trip to the Knightswood area of Glasgow today to play this West of Scotland league game against BSC Glasgow. BSC have been having a torrid season with poor results and so Carluke went into this match confident that they could continue their recent good run which has taken them up the league table.

The match was played on a grass pitch and surroundings which were more like being “Up the Moor” in Carluke than at a facility capable of hosting professional football matches. The bumpy surface was going to be a bit of a leveler and so it transpired for long spells in the match.

It took until the 17th minute for Carluke to break the deadlock. A simple ball through the middle of the BSC defence found the feet of Rovers striker Mikey Downs and he calmy slotted the ball past Alexander Bell in goal from 18 yards out. 0-1 to Carluke.

It was hoped that this strike would be the start of an onslaught by Carluke but to their credit BSC got an equaliser in 25th minute. A corner was cleared by the Rovers defence to the edge of the box. It was picked up by Iles Kraria whose speculative shot caught out Garry Black in the Rovers goal and looped over his head into the empty net. 1-1.

Following this setback Carluke should have regained the lead within a couple of minutes when good play by Connor McQueen saw him square the ball to Mikey Downs who had a “tap in” to make it 2-1. However the ball bobbled on the surface and the big striker managed to put it wide from about 6 yards out in front of goal!

Then just before halftime Carluke regained the lead. A corner to the back post was met by the head of Olly Grenfell and his downward header found the bottom of the net. 1-2 to Carluke.

Although the surface was very difficult there was a feeling that Carluke were not fully engaged in a game they expected to win and that feeling permeated into the second half. It was no surprise then that after about 10 minutes of the second half Rovers boss Thomas Devine started to ring the changes with several subs in the space of 15 minutes.

The subs injected a bit more urgency into Carluke’s play and the team started to dominate proceedings with Dom Small and James Dunlop, coming off the bench, having positive impacts at the business end.

There were several chances for several players which came and went but it was left to top scorer, Ross Steele to produce some clinical finishing and put the game to bed. A quickfire hat trick in 6 minutes put a gloss on the result for Carluke Rovers. His first in the 72nd minute saw him get his head on another Connor McQueen corner from close range to make it 1-3 and finish the game as a contest. This was quickly followed by his second and Carluke’s fourth when an Olly Grenfell freekick was collected by Connor McQueen and he again provided the pass across goal to the unmarked Steele who calmy put the ball into the empty net.

BSC heads were well down at this stage and in the 78th minute they gave away a penalty for a foul when two players locked boots when the both went to kick the ball. The ball was placed by and duly dispatched into the net by Ross Steele to complete his hat trick and finish the game at 1-5 to Carluke.

Next Saturday Carluke welcome Campbeltown to the John Cumming Stadium where they will be expecting a sterner test but looking for a similar outcome to today’s victory.

Photography by Kevin Ramage