Wishaw High FP are knocked out of Scottish Amateur Cup

Nov 18 2009 by Andrew Weston, Wishaw Press

WISHAW High School FP crashed out of the third round of the Scottish Amateur Cup at a windswept Williamwood High School, Clarkston, on Saturday.

Despite a host of first-team call-offs and a rather depleted substitutes bench consisting mainly of FP committee members, with the exception of David McCluskey, boss Gary Hailstones was confident his starting 11 were good enough to win the match.

The FPs started in confident enough fashion, with Scott Donald unlucky not to connect with a neat through ball from Allan Burnside after just two minutes.

The Wishaw side should have gone ahead in five minutes when home goalkeeper Scott Sommerville failed to hold onto a dipping drive from skipper Stephen Mackie but midfielder Stephen King sliced the rebound wide of the post.

Ten minutes later, Alan Patrick drove a dangerous corner kick across the Giffnock six-yard line and Scott Donald rose to meet it at the back post only to see his header fly just over the bar.

Giffnock soaked up this early FP pressure and looked dangerous themselves, with surging runs from deep from full-back Martin Cohen causing particular problems.

The home side should have opened the scoring in 22 minutes when Niall Crawford broke through the heart of the FP defence only to see his 18-yard drive flash inches past.

Moments later, Giffnock opened the scoring after the FP defence failed to deal with a low inswinging corner kick and Kevin Stevenson nodded the ball home from close range.

Just five minutes later, it looked like Giffnock would take a two-goal lead when Scott Donald was adjudged to have tripped a Giffnock player as he waltzed past several defenders into the penalty area.

Despite protests, the penalty was given but goalkeeper Peter Gormley threw himself to his right to save Andrew Colling’s effort.

The FPs took advantage and hauled themselves back into the game after Scott Donald and Alan Patrick worked a neat short corner.

The ball eventually fell to the edge of the box and Mackie curled an unstoppable curling drive into the roof of the net to level things up at the interval.

Hitting into the swirling conditions in the second period was always going to be difficult but for the first 15 minutes the FPs looked the more likely team to go in front, with Stephen Mackie and Scott Donald creating chances.

Midway through the half, however, Giffnock caught the FPs on the break and a long clearance saw Chris Cadman latch onto the ball. He looked up from 28 yards and, seeing Gormley off his line, cutely lobbed the ball over the goalkeeper into the net.

With the Wishaw side pushing for the equaliser to keep them in the competition in the closing minutes, they were caught on the break by Cadman, who proded the ball past Gormley to make the final score 3-1.

FPs coach John Inglis said afterwards: “We can't fault the guys’ effort but we were never really at the races.

“We looked a bit disjointed at times, which isn't like us as, in the past few games, we have played extremely well.

“Any team would struggle missing the players we were missing today but having said that the team we put out was certainly capable of getting a result.”

This Saturday the FPs are at home to Calton Athletic in the West of Scotland Cup third round at King George V Park (1.30pm kick-off).