Lomond Rock hit a spot of cup bother

Nov 14 2008 by Laura McLachlan, Lennox Herald (main ed)

LOMOND Rock’s Scottish cup run was snatched away from them on Saturday – thanks to a controversial penalty decision.

After last season’s superb run in the Scottish Cup, expectations were high going into this third match.

But the Rock were missing several key players, including new dad Stephen Revie, Barry Quinn, Martin King, Tony Hainey, Mark Beaumont, Alan Ryden, Scott Russell, and Neil Burch – with their injury woes worsening when King was injured in the warm-up and had to swap places with Brian Bonner on the bench.

On the positive side for Rock, they welcomed back goalkeeper Fraser Grant after his three- match ban.

The game started with the home side finding it difficult to get the ball down and play any decent football and it was Lochgilphead who took control, pegging their opponents deep into their own half.

But they soon woke up and the game opened up, although no one created any clear-cut chances. The Lochgilphead boys soon realised who the Rock’s main playmakers were and began dishing out some rough treatment which seemingly passed the referee’s notice.

The game exploded into life when the number seven caught Graham in a crazy lunge but incredibly, the ref waved play on.

Bonner slid in to make a great challenge just outside the box, and unbelievably the ref pointed to the spot, and the penalty was duly converted.

The second half started with the Rock taking the game to their opponents. Marsland was seeing more of the ball, but he was still being fouled at every opportunity with the ref giving him no protection at all.

King was brought on for Marment, and Graham was pushed up front to try and get the equaliser. Lochgilphead were now happy to sit in and defend their lead and hit on the break, but the Rock were finding it hard to get in behind the Lochgilphead defence and were limited to shots outside the box.

In the last 15 minutes, the Lomond boys threw all they had at the away team, but they just couldn’t get the goal.

The final chance of the match fell to Law whose header just went wide of the post.

A poor result for the team but overall a decent performance, attitude and effort were superb. Just lack of options on the bench and some of the lads tiring near the end due to the heavy pitch didn’t help the team on the day.

Lomond Rock: F Grant, J Gordon, A Stewart, M Law, G Doherty, S Marsland, G O'Malley, C Graham, J Wilson, S Marment, B Bonnar. Subs: K King, J Gallacher.