For the second Saturday in a row Carluke were to play Campbeltown Pupils in a West of Scotland League game. This time the game was at the John Cumming Stadium and Carluke hoped to take advantage of being at home.

Unfortunately for Campbeltown it didn’t take long for Carluke to take the lead. Good play down the right wing saw the ball played in low by Kyle McAdam where he found Ross Steele unmarked in front of goal with the easiest of tap ins. 1-0 to Carluke.

It was always going to be a difficult afternoon for Campbeltown who are firmly rooted at the bottom of the league. However they defended stoutly for the next 20 minutes apart from a couple of glaring Rovers misses but they were undone in the 24th minute by leading goalscorer Gary Stewart. A sweeping move by Rovers saw the ball passed to Stewart from Ross Steele and the striker calmly slotted his shot into the bottom corner 2-0.

It didn’t take the striker long to double his tally in the 31st minute. A Ben Rennie corner was fired in from the right wing. The ball bounced a bit in the box before finding it’s way to Gary Stewart who placed his shot into the bottom corner. 3-0 to Carluke and the team were in cruise control. This was also to be the end of the first half scoring.

The second half was always going to be about Carluke pressing with Campbeltown trying to hit Carluke on the break. Five minutes into the half manager Thomas Devine rang the changes bringing on the subs. However with the strength of the Rovers bench nothing much changed with respect to the side’s continued dominance.

In the 57th minute skipper Ross Steele got his second and Rovers fourth with a wonderful half volley from the edge of the box into the roof of the net following a Ben Patterson corner.

Not to be outdone the next goal came from Lewis Guy who had played well down the left side and got his just reward in the 67th minute. He hit a great running cross to the backpost and it when it came back to him he was on hand to slam the ball into the roof of the net to make it 5-0.

Eleven minutes later Ashton Pelllow completed the scoring. Another good move down the left saw three Rovers players available for a cut back and when if duly arrived there was Pellow to calmy put the ball the ball into the back of the net to complete the scoring at 6-0.

In the last 10 minutes Carluke missed several more chances to further increase their lead but poor finishing coupled with resolute Campbeltown defending kept the final score at 6-0 for Carluke Rovers.

Carluke Rovers are back in action next weekend away to Newmains United.

Photography by Kevin Ramage