East Kilbride 5

Gala Fairydean Rovers 1

John Clayton at K Park

GALA Fairydean Rovers' season came to a close with a heavy away defeat at the hands of East Kilbride.

As in the first round of the Lowland League Cup, Gala travelled with only two substitutes and one of these, Ross Lamb, had to take the field in the first minute when Gala lost one of their outstanding players of the season, Ben Herdman, when he badly twisted his ankle. T

his meant that Ross Aitchison had to take up a deeper role and the whole set up of the team was disrupted.

Despite this setback and the fact that East Kilbride did most of the pressing, there were no major scares and the first half had almost reached the midpoint before East Kilbride were awarded a penalty.

It is possible that any foul may have been committed outside the area but the home player tumbled in the box and the referee didn’t hesitate in awarding a spot kick.

Sean Winter opened the scoring when he sent Mark Wilson in the wrong direction.

It looked as if the visitors would reach half time only one goal in arrears, allowing Steven Noble to have a chance to reorganise matters on the pitch, but in the three minutes before the interval Gala conceded as many goals, and the contest was decided.

A shot from Jack Smith came back off the far post and Dave Proctor shot the rebound home before a Craig Hastings double sent East Kilbride into a comfortable lead.

Early in the second half a Clapperton cross from the right was fired off target by Stuart Noble before Gala got on the score sheet.

Jack Hay received the ball just outside the box in a central position and jinked his way to the left before firing across the area into the opposite corner of the goal.

Any thoughts of a possible comeback were quashed when the impressive Gavin Millar notched the fifth goal for Kilbie.

Gala Fairydean: M Wilson, R Clapperton (T Aitchison), L Stephen, T Hope, M Allen, B Herdman (R Lamb), A Scott, R Aitchison, S Noble, J Hay & D McColm.