23/09/2017  |  Scottish Cup

Colville Park   2  v  1  Cumbernauld Colts

COLTS CUP DREAM OVER
The Scottish Cup was back with Colville Park hosting the Cumbernauld Colts at New Tinto Park Govan. The Colts have had relative success in the Scottish Cup in their first two years as a senior club and had safely negotiated the first round on previous occasions without conceding a goal. The challenge this time was the highly rated and experienced Motherwell based Scottish Amateur Cup champions Colville Park AFC. The Colts had high spirits going into the game having won their previous two league games on the bounce. However, the team were missing a number of regular first team players due to injury and this forced a change in formation from three to four in defence.

The game started at a fast pace and with early pressure from the amateur side the Colts found it difficult to get the ball out from the back. This led to a short pass back to the keeper allowing the Colville striker through on goal, Colts keeper George was exposed 1v1 with the striker, as he tried to round the keeper all George could do was to bring the forward down in the box, a clear penalty which earning him a yellow card. The penalty was placed straight down the middle, with George diving to his right. 1-0 after only 2 minutes played.

The Colts were on the back foot and struggling, and it didn�t take long for Colville to double their lead in 13 minutes, the Colville defence played the ball from the halfway line to their dangerous front man, cutting through the Colts defence. This led to a wonderful finish by the striker, firing high into the top corner, a class finish at any level.

The Colts tried to gain some momentum and on 17 minutes they forced a corner, this was driven low and hard into the centre of the penalty box where Colts striker Sean Brown was on hand to fire home low out of the keeper reach from 10 yards to put the Colts back in the game.
After the frantic opening 20 minutes the game settled into a midfield stalemate, and although the Colts had the majority of possession they rarely threatened the Colville goalkeeper.
HT 2-1

The second half continued with the same pattern of play as the end of the first half. The Colts had the majority of the ball but failed to break down a determined and well organised Colville defence. The majority of the play was in front of the Colville defence with sideways and backwards passing from the Colts while Colville were a threat on the break. There was intensity to the closing down play and a desire to win from the Colville players that was not matched by the Colts. However, with 25 minutes left on the clock Brown received the ball 30 yards from goal and drove forward bursting into the penalty area, as he went one on one with the goalkeeper he tried to slot the ball passed the keeper, only to see the ball narrowly missed the target.

With seventy minutes on the clock and time running out the Colts management team changed the formation and tactics as they pushed forward looking to break down the Colville back line. Left back McCrorie departing for young forward McKenzie. Two minutes later, fresh legged McKenzie got the ball from the left back position, drove forward beating two men, as he approached the 25 yard mark he blasted a shot that went narrowly over the bar.

The experienced and well organised Colville team were making life hard for the young Colts team who eventually pushed defenders Hunter and Kerr up front, to make a 2-4-4 formation in a desperate attempt to save this year�s Scottish Cup campaign. However, the amateur side held out in the remaining few minutes and are rewarded with an away trip to Peterhead in the second round while the Colts will need to regroup and focus on the other cups and Lowland League as the romance of this year�s Cup adventure is over before it really began.