Overtown in first half overdrive

Nov 12 2008 by Andrew Weston, Wishaw Press

OVERTOWN Thistle produced their best performance of the season to knock out Paisley Amateurs in the second round of the West of Scotland Cup on Saturday with an emphatic 5-1 victory at Palace Grounds in Hamilton.

Overtown almost opened the scoring in the first minute of the match when a Gordon Gunn header went inches over with the Paisley keeper rooted to the spot.

The visitors were pinned back into their own 18 yard line from the kick-off and, after only two minutes, clever build up play by Overtown resulted in striker Paul McCabe looking extremely sharp as he reacted to a loose ball on the six yard line to net from close range.

Four minutes later striker McCabe looked even sharper as he pounced again to score from close range to put Thistle 2-0 up in six minutes.

The Overtown midfield looked full of power and pace. Gordon Gunn put his height and strapping build to good use and his superior athleticism made sure Overtown controlled the midfield area.

Gunn was on top of his game and was very influential in winning almost every header or tackle in that crucial midfield area which resulted in the visitors being under the cosh for long periods.

Overtown were playing some excellent fast fluent football and the Paisley defenders were given a torrid time by the hard working Overtown forwards and after only 30 minutes of the match Thistle found themselves 5-0 ahead.

Kevin McDonald grabbed a brace and Jamie Dickson scored the other goal after fellow striker Kevin McDonald showed an unselfish streak to square the ball to Dickson to score from close range.

All five were well worked goals and the damage to the visitors could have been a lot worse if Overtown had converted more of their chances.

Jamie Dickson hit the bar at the start of the second period but the half proved to be an anti-climax.

The Paisley outfit began to lose the rag and were reckless and dangerous with their tackling.

With the game won Overtown were in the luxury position of substituting man of the match Gordon Gunn and Jamie Dickson early in the second half as both players had become targets for some heavy treatment by their opponents.

Overtown were content to see out the 90 minutes and not be drawn into a war with their opponents.

The visitors eventually had a man sent off for their over-physical approach.

But despite being down to 10 men the visitors scored a late consolation goal as Overtown went to sleep at the back.

It was an excellent performance from Overtown, who did well to keep their discipline under difficult circumstances, as their opponents lost their composure and received five yellows and a red card from the referee,

Meanwhile, Overtown make a short journey to Ashgill on Saturday to play fellow Lanarkshire Amateur side MLS Leeds in the third round of the West of Scotland Cup.

Kick-off is at 1.30 pm.