Andy Donlevy Weekly Update

Tomorrow it’s the glamour of the Scottish Cup as we take on the excellent Lowland League side University of Stirling. It will be our fourth home game in a row of a busy and very important month of October as we play across various competitions. Since the last update from Smally we have played Lochore Welfare in the league and Preston in the South Challenge Cup. The league was a vital game. Following the excellent win the previous week against league leaders Luncarty it was important we built on that result against Lochore before a two week cup break. 

We weren’t at our best on the day but felt we did enough and deserved to win the game. Sean Brennan didn’t have much to do and we could and should have gone 2 nil before letting Lochore back in the game. Strange how things pan out as the winner with 10 mins to go was an amazing feeling. Particularly as it was scored by our leading U20’s striker Gregor Goldie. At 17 he has a great future in the game. He was outstanding in his 20 minute performance. He is involved on merit and shows how important the U20’s and the manager Stuart Allan is to the club. The future’s looking bright, Gregor deserved the  Man of the Match award. The result kept us in a good position in the league which gave us good confidence going into two cup games.

Next we played our league and East Lothian rivals Preston Athletic in the South Challenge Cup. It’s the biggest non league trophy and it would be great to get a good run this year. Preston are a really good side and showed that a few weeks previous as they deservedly won our away league fixture 3-0. The cup game was a cracking game and Preston started well. We got our noses in front through a cracking finish from Cammy Dawson at a tight angle midway through the first half. 

The game was evenly balanced until we made it 2-0 by a bit of luck with a cross from Mikey McFarlane that went in at the far post. We soon made it 3 and you would think the job was done. Preston kept fighting and reduced the score to 3-1 and had a great chance to make it 3-2 and would have set up a great end to the game. Fortunately for us Mikey scored his 3rd shortly afterwards. Over the piece it was a good game with both teams going at it from the off and each having spells on top. In fairness the scoreline was probably harsh on Preston. It was a game that we were clinical with our chances at important times in the game and thankfully seen us through to the next round to play West of Scotland side Gartcairn.

On to tomorrow, and it’s the big one at home to Stirling Uni. The club had a great run last year in our first adventure in the national competition. It’s massive for the club. A Scottish Cup week feels very different to a normal league week. Training has been excellent this week and all the boys have trained well and are looking forward to the game. It’s going to be a difficult game against a very good side but hopefully by 4:45 tomorrow we will make history and be in the 3rd round. As always the town’s support has been tremendous this season and I’m sure there will be another great crowd on Saturday to cheer on the boys.

All the best

Dunny