On a blustery day at the John Cumming Stadium Carluke entertained Bellshill Athletic in this West of Scotland league game. Bellshill have been one of the most improved teams in the league in recent weeks and this was going to be a difficult test for Carluke with a couple of key players missing from the fray.

It was Bellshill who started the quicker and put Carluke under pressure from the off. It was therefore not a great surprise when they took the lead in the 15th minute. A corner on the right was headed back across goal by the Bellshill No5 and it was met by the onrushing Chris Jarvie who had the easiest of chances knocking the ball into the empty net from a couple of yards out. 0-1 to Bellshill.

It wasn’t all one way traffic though and Carluke gradually came more into the game. In fact they were unfortunate not to equalise in the 20th minute when Christy Lawlor latched on to a long clearance and tried to lob the Bellshill keeper. However the keeper got a despairing arm to it, slowing the ball enough to allow a Bellshill defender to get back and clear off the line. The resultant corner was low across the goal but no one got on the end of it and the Bellshill goal remained intact.

Carluke were to rue these misses 5 minutes later when poor tracking back down the right wing allowed the Bellshill no10 to cut along the byeline and score past Josh McGill in the Carluke goal from a tight angle. 0-2 to Bellshill. There was a couple of half chances at either end after this but the score at halftime remained at 0-2.

The second half started with Carluke still in the game but it was important they got the next goal. They had a lucky escape in the 57th minute when a mix up at the back allowed the ball to roll along the goal line but fortunately for the home side it was cleared to safety.

Then on the hour mark Carluke squandered their best chance to get back into the game. A corner from Christy Lawlor was bobbling around in the box and Carluke’s Barry’s Fraser managed to get a toe to it but the ball skewed past the post from 5 yards out. Carluke were to pay for this miss 5 minutes later when a cross from the right hand side went over the head of the Carluke defender and running in behind him was Bellshill’s No8 who side footed a volley past McGill in the Carluke goal giving him no chance from 6 yards out. 0-3.

This effectively ended the game as a contest but Carluke kept plugging away and finally got their goal in the 80th minute. Good work down the right wing saw the ball find it’s way into the box where Christy Lawlor hooked into the net to make it 1-3.

Then in the 88th minute good work from Dom Small saw him running along the byeline and he cut the ball back to striker Connor McKenzie whose shot hit the underside of the bar and was cleared to safety.
This was to be the last of the action and Bellshill held out to record a 1-3 victory.

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Photography by Kevin Ramage