Carluke Rovers were on their travels today to Eastwood Park to take on Giffnock SC in this West of Scotland league match. The reverse fixture earlier in the year hd been an evenly contested 1-1 draw but Carluke were confident that with their improvement in form in the second half of the season they could claim all three points.

The game kicked off with Giffnock the quickest out of the blocks and nearly caught Carluke unawares in the third minute when a cross from the left wing found Rowan Gibson with a free header in the centre of the goal but his effort flew over the bar.

The game settlled into a bit of a stalemate for the first half hour with both defences on top but that all changed in the 36th minute when Carluke took the lead. A throw in on the right hand side was picked up by Kyle McAdam. He produced a deft lob into the box to the feet of Connor McQueen. He in turn rolled the ball wide to Ben Rennie who twisted and turned before firing a low shot into the bottom right corner to give Carluke the lead 0-1.

No sooner were Carluke in the lead when Giffnock could have got a fortuitous equaliser. An innocuous cross into the box found the head of Jack Agnew and his looping header from just inside the box went right over the head of Garry Black in the Rovers goal and looked in but for the far post which it hit off and was cleared. Then just before halftime Carluke had to clear one off the line from a Giffnock attack. This was the last of the action and Carluke went in leading 1-0 at halftime.

At the start of the second half it was clear that the next goal would be vital for either team as the first half had been tight. The half was only 10 minutes old when Rovers nearly doubled their lead. Great play by Connor McQueen on the right saw him collect the ball, cut inside and unleash a curling shot with his left foot. Unfortunately for the winger the ball cannoned off the far post. However the respite for Giffnock was to be short lived as a minute later Carluke got the all important next goal. A lovely ball found Ross Steele running through the middle of the park and the midfielder showed the composure that has made him top goal scorer just to sidefoot the ball calmly away from the Keeper into the bottom corner to make it 2-0 to Carluke on 57 minutes.

Carluke had found another gear in the second half and were now on top in this game and playing some good football. Their lead was further extended in the 68th minute when skipper Alan Inch intercepted a poor pass and fed in Mikey Downs. Th striker got his shot away early but not perfectly. However it seemed to confuse the Giffnock keeper who could not keep it from trundling into his bottom corner to put the result beyond doubt at 3-0.

To their credit Giffnock didn’t let their heads go down and continued to press without bringing Garry Black in the Rovers goal into action too often. However in 77 minutes they got a consolation goal when Sean Keegan volleyed home off the underside of the bar at his second attempt to make it 1-3.

This did not seem to faze Carluke though who are now playing with a level of belief and confidence which has not been seen for a number of seasons. The final goal of the game came in the 85th minute and was a fitting end to a great second half performance.

Giffnock conceded a direct freekick about 30 yards out. Ross Steele placed the ball in front of a three man wall. He then unleashed a shot that never left its line and hit the back stantion inside the goal so hard that the net didn’t even move nor did the Giffnock keeper! It happened so quickly that some of the spectators were not sure if it was a goal or not but it was. Final score Giffncock 1 Carluke Rovers 4.

This was a excellent second half performance by the team who are starting to believe they can win every game when they take to the pitch. This is not unfounded optimism as they have now went 11 games undefeated in the league including five wins in their last six outings.

However Carluke Rovers will be able to gauge just how far they have come when they take on league leaders Knightswood next week at the John Cumming Stadium with a 2pm kickoff. The visitors have only been defeated once this season but Rovers will be hoping to double that tally to two next week when the two teams meet.

Photography by Kevin Ramage