Glasgow Perthshire were todays visitors to the John Cumming Stadium for a game that was to be played in dull, wet and trying conditions. However the performance from the new look Carluke Rovers team was to brighten the day for the larger than usual home support in attendance.

In fact, the game was only 30 seconds old when Greg Kane won the ball in the opposition half and quickly fed it to Stuart Mitchell who was through on goal and just about to pull the trigger when a last gasp tackle averted the danger.

Then in the 10th minute Kris Dick hit a speculative shot from 25 yards which just went past the Perthshire Keeper’s right hand post. This was Kris’s first game for Carluke and he would go on to more than hold his own in midfield throughout the match.

In 13 minutes Mitchell was involved again when he deftly lobbed the ball over a defender directly into the path of the onrushing Conor McDonald whose shot from 10 yards unfortunately flew over the bar as he was challenged.

Mitchell was involved again when good work by Dominic McMeekin, eluding a couple of tackles, enabled him to get the ball to Mitchell whose attempted shot was blocked by the Perthsihre defender. McMeekin was at the heart of the next piece of action on the half hour when he again beat his marker and this time fed the ball to the industrious Jamie Dixon whose shot from 15 yards only just went over the bar.

This was to be the last action of the first half and both teams went in level at 0-0.

The Rovers defence in front of McAllister were protecting his goal magnificently with Cassidy and Neossi forming an excellent partnership in the middle and Gary Livingstone and Graeme Goodall making foraging runs down the flanks to support the midfield and front men.

So in control was the Rovers defence that it took till the second half for Perthshire to register their first effort on goal. It was to prove decisive though when in the 47th minute Carluke were unable to dispossess Perthshire at the edge of the box. When it was rolled to the number 6 he curled a beautiful shot into the bottom left corner with KP McAllister having no chance to stop it. 0-1 to Perthshire.

This goal was to give Perthshire a lift but to Carluke’s credit the heads never went down and they continued to play the ball out from the back and probe the Perthshire defence. One of these moves resulted in a direct free kick 25 yards out. Jamie Dixon took the effort but it was well held by the Perthshire keeper down to his left.

At this stage of the game Glasgow Perthshire were giving as good as they got and created the two best chances of the second half. In both instances they found space to get a shot away but Keeper KP McAllister was equal to both with brilliant saves particularly one with his feet from the Perthshire No 9.

For all Carluke efforts they could not breach the Perthishire rearguard and only created a couple of half chances in the remaining 10 minutes. One was a lovely run and cutback from substitute Lewis Murdoch to Jamie Dickson but his flighted shot was just wide. Then in the last minute Maxi Neossi did well to get his head to a free kick but his header went narrowly wide.

The final whistle went and the relief in the Glasgow Perthshire camp could be heard across the ground which was testament to how well Carluke had played in a game where a draw would have probably been the correct result. Final Score Carluke Rovers 0 Glasgow Perthshire 1.

Photography by Kevin Ramage