Shotts boss hopes thumping cup win will boost league campaign

Ten-man Shotts put in a ‘professional’ performance to beat Lesmahagow 5-1 in the West of Scotland Cup second round on Saturday, and boss John McKeown hopes that can boost their league campaign.

Second-bottom Shotts visit a Cumnock side sitting three points and as many league places above them in the West of Scotland Premier League on Saturday, and McKeown reckons they’re finding their feet.

Ally Martin gave Shotts the lead with a fifth-minute penalty, and they then ran riot, with a long-range deflected Adam Hunter strike doubling their advantage in 14 minutes.

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Ally Small put Shotts 3-0 up eight minutes later, Andy Duffy netted a header in 27 minutes, and Small netted his second and Shotts’ fifth in 42 minutes.

Second Division side Lesmahagow pulled a goal back three minutes from the interval, and the emphatic win was marred as Martin was shown a straight red card for reacting to a poor tackle, which also saw a ’Gow player receiving his marching orders.

McKeown said: “The boys were brilliant, did a professional job, really early in the game – I think we were 5-0 up by the 40-minute mark and went in at 5-1, so the job was done really early, which allowed us to rest a couple of guys and give other guys some minutes, which was good as well.

“It was a good afternoon’s work, the only disappointment was a red card for Ally Martin, but I think it was probably deserved.

“There was a wee bit of a flash-point in the second half and the game had petered out, so it really shouldn’t have happened, but the boy put in a horrendous tackle on him and Ally has reacted.

“I’ve never really seen Ally react like that, so it shows how bad the tackle must have been.

“Ally is a professional, he’s very disciplined in his life, but it was an absolute shocker, the way the boy slid into the tackle, I think just out of frustration, because Ally had been giving him a tough time of it all afternoon.”

McKeown hopes Shotts can start to climb the table as they head to Ayrshire.

“In the first month of the season we looked a wee bit toothless in front of goal, but lately we’ve been scoring goals, so hopefully we can carry that on into the league form,” he said.

“Cumnock have signed almost a full new squad and spent a lot money in doing it, but they’re a wee bit like us just now, inconsistent, so it’s a game we need to try and impose ourselves on.

“I feel as if it was always going to be tough for us, with our resources, but I feel as though we’re putting up a good fight and the boys still have a lot of belief that they can stay up in the league and make an impact on it.

“It’s still really close down the bottom end of the table, it’s early days, so we want to concentrate on trying to get more points on the board and getting up the table.”