Carluke Rovers were back on their travels today playing in Kirkintilloch against Rossvale in this West of Scotland league game. Rossvale were a couple of places above Carluke in the table but Rovers were determined to get back to winning ways after a couple of recent losses. Carluke were without Olly Grenfell and Ross Girdwood due to suspension but welcomed back Ronan Shiels to the defence.

The game kicked off and a pattern in the first half was set very early on. Rossvale were keen to keep possession of the ball but Rovers restricted most of that to being in the Rossvale’s own half. It was one such passage of play which allowed Carluke to dispossess Rossvale just inside their half. The ball was picked up by Chris Owen who slid a nice pass into Ross Steele. The skipper in turn moved the ball square to Mikey Downs. The striker took his time from the edge of the box and fired a great shot into the bottom right corner to put Rovers ahead in the 11th minute. 0-1 to Carluke.

Rossvale’s problem in the first half was that for all their possession in their own half they were having great difficulty to threaten Carluke as their midfield and strikers were being well marshalled and closed down. They were having no joy down the flanks either where Craig McEwan and Connor Coyle were snuffing out any attacks from those areas.

It was therefore not a great surprise when Carluke again took advantage of some sloppy play at the back to score their second in the 27th minute. Good work by Jacob Maceachen down the left wing found the striker striding to the bye line. He then cut a great pass back to Ross Steele running in from midfield and the skipper took the ball in his stride and knocked it home off the inside of the right post making it 0-2 to Carluke.

The post then came to Rossvale’s rescue in the 32nd minute when a deflected shot by Steven Logan looked as if it was spinning into the corner with the Rossvale Keeper languishing outside his box but it came back off the post.

Chris Tobin in the Rossvale goal was to have no such escape a second time right on halftime. A long clearance from Carluke saw striker Jacob Maceachen chasing the ball down and closing him down. Although the Keeper still had plenty of time to clear the ball he scuffed his clearance against the striker and the ball broke into Maceachan’s path and he just rolled it into the empty net. 0-3 to Carluke right on halftime.

The second half got underway but that third goal had given Rossvale a mountain to climb. They changed their style in the second half and adopted a more direct attacking approach but this was managed and controlled expertly by Chris Owen and Ronan Shiels at the heart of the Rovers defence.

Although Carluke were comfortable throughout the game was effectively over as a contest when in the 70th minute Rossvale’s Josh Holland reacted badly to a hard but fair tackle by Kyle McAdam and kicked out at the midfielder after play had stopped. The Referee had no hesitation in brandishing a straight red card to the right back.

The same Rovers player was involved in Carluke’s fourth and final goal in the 83rd minute. He played a lovely pass out wide to Chris Owen who in turn threaded the ball down the line weighted perfectly for Connor McQueen. McQueen then looked up and saw Ross Steele unmarked in the box. He crossed the ball to the unmarked Steele who had time to control it and calmly side footed it past the Keeper into the net to make the score 0-4 for Carluke. With only ten men and the game gone Rossvale were keen to hear the final whistle and Carluke could have added more goals but in the end dsettled for 0-4 at fulltime.

An excellent performance by Carluke Rovers against a good team in Rossvale. The management and squad have earned a hard earned rest next week as Carluke do not have a match. However they will be looking to build on this in the remaining few games of a long season.

Unfortunately our normal match day photographer was unavailable but big thanks go to one of our committee members who managed to provide a few shots from an excellent performance by the team.