Before our first meeting with Cumbernauld this season our Reserves beat Dunbar Utd Res 5-0 – Jack Downie, David Churchill, Joe Boyle, Jordan Hopkinson and MOTM Andrew Mackay back from injury with the goals.
Cumbernauld Colts ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbernauld_Colts_F.C. ) joined the Lowland league in 2015 and finished 6th in the 2017/18 season. The seaon preview has them finishing 5th, and they are currently 4th so they are living up to their potential.
They tend to play a 4-4-1-1, which I don’t think we have faced yet – not quite as defensive as the 4-5-1 but I imagine it will be similar, maybe with the AM playing the link role between the striker and centre mid. They have lost 4 league games so far (Kelty, East Stirlingshire, East Kilbride, Spartans) and their impressive start to the league campaign tailed off a bit in October but they have won their last 2 in the league.
Garden starts up top as we try to find the right mix of goals v influence from a striker perspective. The Wingers move up to attack, and I’ve added some personalised instructions – cross to the back post (Hopefully to each other) and for Barras the IF to sit narrower.McCulloch is back as the DLP after Balfour had a couple of games, but I stick with McVitie & Clappers. Back 5 stays the same. Just need to grab a couple of goals here today i think, but I’m wary of the threat Cumbernauld could pose. Its a sleety 2C, lets go!
HT Civil Service 0 Cumbernauld Colts 0
The usual good start, we should have scored in the 6th minute when there was a god-awful scramble in the Cumbernauld 6-yard box but they kept it out. We continued to press, dominant in possession and passing but to no avail. Balfour is coming on as CM(A) for McVitie, McCulloch has moved to an Advanced Playmaker, and i’ve moved the attcking line higher – Garden is coming too deep for the ball all the time. A draw wouldn’t be a bad result, but i don’t want to be reliant on East Kilbride and BSC dropping points as well.
FT Civil Service 1 (Hainey 74) Cumbernauld Colts 1 (Holmes 87) Att 83 (17 Away)
The second half started with constant Stroller pressure. Hainey came on for Garden and Devers for McCulloch, both like for like, and Civil Service got the breakthrough in the 74th minute when a beautiful ball from Devers found a marauding Newall, who controlled the ball impeccably and put a beautiful ball in from the byline, Hainey finishing at the near post on the volley. We were seeing the game out when in the 87th minute Cumbernauld scored from nowhere; a 25 yard screamer from Holmes finding the bottom right hand corner past Donaldson – Daylight Robbery. That’s how it finished, 1-1.
East Kilbride & BSC Glasgow can close to 2 points if they win their games in hand. Looking like its going to be a closely fought run-in. Really need to get a win next time out versus Gala Fairydean to get our form back on track.
Stop Press – Bottom beat 2nd on Sunday 23rd as Edusport beat East Kilbride 1-0, massive result for us! Merry in-game Christmas everybody 🙂