Macron Scottish Junior Cup Quarter-Final

TROON 0

LOCHEE UNITED 2

By Christopher Dodds

TROON gaffer Jim Kirkwood was left disappointed in his side as they crashed out of the Macron Junior Scottish Cup Quarter final at the hands of East Region side Lochee United in a 2-0 defeat.

The hosts had the first real chance in 12 minutes when full-back Jack Sherrie had his rasping volley fantastically scrambled over the bar by Lochee keeper Jordan Miller after it looked destined for the top left corner. Lochee took the lead just after the half hour after Grant Lawson finished into the bottom left corner. Steven McCreadie’s run was anticipated by Scott McComiskie, who then drove down the left wing and into the box evading Lewis Clark who slipped at the edge of the area. McComiskie then squared for Lawson who coolly slotted home.

Lochee nearly doubled their lead just before the hour. Marksman Connor Birse beat the offside trap after Dougie Cameron’s through ball, when one on one with Scott Johnstone, he deftly lifted the ball over the oncoming keeper only for the recovering Sherrie to hack the ball clear and prevent it from trickling into the back of the empty net. Troon nearly found an equaliser in 72 minutes. Jamie Martin was played in by substitute Ross McCrea at the edge of the penalty area. He then turned and shot towards the bottom right corner for Millar to save comfortably. With Troon chasing that precious equaliser, Lochee sat back and allowed them to play on top of them. In the dying minutes, Lochee broke away from a Troon corner, Logan Davie broke away down the right hand side and crossed the ball into the six yard box for Scott McComiskie to cheekily flick past Scott Johnstone.

After full-time Kirkwood added: “It’s really disappointing for us. We’ve made the quarter final and have had the chance to get into the semi finals for the first time in our history. That’s what’s really hard to take, to go out on a whimper like that. We didn’t get up for the game at all and it’s just really disappointing for us all. I would have preferred it if Lochee came here and played us off the park but they didn’t, I don’t even know what to say about that, we’ve let ourselves down. We could’ve had a harder tie in the quarters, no disrespect to Lochee but we made it too easy for them. We’ve just undid all the good work we’ve done over the last month.”

TROON: Johnstone; McCreadie, Sherrie, Clark, Strachan, Keenan, Fulton, Murphy, Pooler, Stevenson, Martin. Subs: Maley, McCrea, Chatham McKay, Reid.