Craigneuk scored a thumping win over Kilbarchan last weekend. Read on for a full match report provided by the club.

Craigneuk started with the same winning team as last week, and for the first time in 3 seasons moved back to grass at Pather Park.

Neuk started well by keeping the ball away from Kilbarchan with their goalkeeper having to make save after save. First T McKnight fired at him followed by McGowan. Shaun Thomson playing left wing kept attacking their defence and crossing the ball into the box but with no joy.

Then lack of communication led to Kilbarchan taking the lead, P Rooney played a ball to Duddy’s feet who then played a sloppy ball which fell into the path of the onrushing midfielder. He then played a long ball over Murray’s head for their forward to take on Lafferty in goal. The forward side stepped Kilbarchan's goalie and fired the ball into the empty net. This seem to spur Neuk on with corner after corner and it felt as if Kilbarchan didn’t touch the ball for 10 minutes as Neuk passed them off the park. The Kilbarchan goalkeeper was in top form - he had a brilliant diving save from a shot by Thomson then Craigneuk‘s Stephen Rooney hit the post from close range and once again their keeper produced another class save from a diving header from Phillips.

With Lafferty being like a spectator after he had hardly touched the ball he finally managed to play a pass back up the park which T McKnight controlling. Thomson was played in, beat two players and fired into the net from 20 yards, with the keeper well beaten. McKnight had the ball in the net again but the referee unfortunately blew for offside, then the same player had another shot well saved from the keeper.

Halftime 1-1

David McKnight and Stephen Rooney were controlling the midfield and Murray and Phillips were keeping Kilbarchan away from the Neuks goal. Craigneuk brought on debutant Grant Robertson for Duddy and Wallace for McGowan. Then came another blow as an injury to John Collins meant that he had to be replaced by Scott Thomson. Neuk again started to take the ball to Kilbarchan. Good footwork from Thomson played in Robertson who fired the ball into the keeper's arms, then Wallace skipped past their defence and as he was ready to take a shot was fouled from behind just on line with the box. The ref blew for a free kick and only booked the player, D Phillips fired the ball over the wall into the top corner only for the keeper to brilliantly turn it over the bar. From the resulting corner Craigneuk took the lead as a long corner to the back post saw Phillips head down the ball to S Rooney who fired the ball past the keeper into the net.

Kilbarchan tried to get back into the game but Neuk kept forcing them to play the ball long and it was one of their long balls that lead to Neuk's third goal. Phillips gave away a free kick after the Kilbarchan forward latched on to another long ball and with only seconds remaining Kilbarchan even put the keeper up for attack. Unfortunately a poor delivery from the kick saw D McKnight clear to T McKnight and from 10 yards inside his own half beat the only defender and fired the ball into the empty net.

Final score Craigneuk 3 Kilbarchan 1

Man of the match Stephen Rooney

Match ball sponsored by City Plumbing