Cambuslang Rangers bag vital league win after backroom shake-up

Cambuslang Rangers boss Paul McColl says a backroom change led to his side bagging their first league win in five games on Saturday as they beat Larkhall Thistle 1-0.

The victory, courtesy of a Godson Nechi strike, pushed Camby up to 11th in the West of Scotland Second Division, and provided some much-needed relief for McColl.

Cambuslang Rangers have amicably parted company with coaches John Lennox and John Brian, and brought in Chris Mackie, and McColl reckons they also got a rub of the green against Larkhall Thistle.

He said: “It was a good result, maybe for a couple of reasons.

“We’ve changed coaches, and I’m not blaming John Lennox and John Bryan, who have moved on for various reasons, no fall-out.

“But I’ve got a new assistant manager/coach in Chris Mackie, who played at a good level and managed a few teams.

“Things were changed up a wee bit, we got a couple of players back in, and we got a wee bit of luck as well.

“It was a bit of a nightmare before the game right enough when one got injured in the warm-up and another who was going to play instead got injured in the warm-up!

“The boys just seemed to be up for it, and Larkhall are a good wee team, with a good crowd, and it was a good game.

“It was a fiery game, the ref booked probably a few too many, and he had a decent game, but missed two penalties.

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“Owen McGinty was running through on goal, has no reason to go down, and the boy has just scythed him down. I have no idea how the referee hasn’t given that, he was actually standing at it, and I’m baffled.

“We were winning then, and it might have made it a wee bit more comfortable.

“There was one at the end for Larkhall, I didn’t get a good view of it, but I wonder if he’s evening it up because he made a mess of the first one.

“It was a good win, and we stood up to it and we won, so fair play to the boys.

“It was just one of those days when things went right for us. “

McColl was pleased to halt a winless league run stretching back to a 4-1 win over Caledonian Locomotive on August 24, a sequence of a draw and three straight defeats.

He said: “That’s too long for us to not win a game, and we’ve had loads of reasons, like boys being injured, poor play from us, bad defending and horrendous refereeing.

“We’re up to 11th in the table as well, and really we went into the game needing to get something out of it.

“Neilston away will be tough, but the boys will be up for it and hopefully we can get something out of it.”

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