Scottish Junior Cup 4th Round – 14th November 2024 @ Portland Park
Following a weather-enforced postponement a couple of weeks back, Lochee United travelled through to Ayrshire this afternoon for their rearranged Scottish Junior Cup fourth round tie against West of Scotland Premier League outfit Troon.
These two teams are no strangers having met almost six years ago at the quarter-final stage of this competition when a Lochee side with current gaffer Dougie Cameron in the midfield upset the odds with a 2-0 win. But Lochee went into today’s game as underdogs once again with our hosts chalking up some impressive victories so far this season against the likes of Auchinleck, Darvel and Cumnock.
And it was the hosts who looked to threaten early on with Leyton Dunlop driving a low left-footed shot narrowly wide.
But if Lochee were looking for encouragement it soon arrived as the contest was blown wide open. Callum Lamb showed good feet in the middle to offload to Ryan Paterson whose long expansive ball over the top gave the home defence a problem and when Kerr Hay was brought down at the edge of the box Bryan Wharton was shown a straight red card for denying a goalscoring opportunity. Ryan Paterson then stepped up to crash the free-kick off the post with the keeper stranded.
Kerr Hay then looked to test the keeper driving into the box off the left before getting a shot off that stung Dale Burgess’ palms.
But as the first half wore on Troon began to adapt to the numerical disadvantage and a good ball over the top of the Lochee defence required a crucial defensive intervention by Scott Webster.
Sam Jamieson then fired a volley into the side netting for the hosts, and as they looked to ratchet up the pressure Lochee keeper Jamie McCabe did well to hold on to a powerful low effort with the striker hovering in search of a rebound.
0-0 as the teams went in at half-time with Lochee unable to capitalise on the extra man and Troon growing in confidence as the game went on.
Lochee looked to up the urgency levels when they came out for the second half but although they worked some good attacking angles Burgess in the Troon goal remained untroubled.
And Troon continued to mount their own attacking raids into Lochee territory with McCabe having to make a brave stop at the feet of Jamieson to keep things all square.
There was then controversy when Hay beat the Troon offside trap only to be fouled at the edge of the box just as he was about to pull the trigger but on this occasion a yellow card was deemed to be an adequate sanction.
Troon’s ten men continued to play without fear though and with 70 minutes played they got their noses in front when an incisive quick passing move picked out Leyton Dunlop unmarked at the back post and he drilled into the bottom corner to put Troon 1-0 up.
And the tie was almost dead and buried five minutes later when McCabe parried a free-kick into traffic and the rebound cannoned off the Lochee crossbar and away to safety.
By this stage Troon looked well in control but with two minutes left to play there was an extraordinary plot twist when Lochee worked a throw-in to Connor Coupe whose shot was smothered by Burgess into the path of Kerr Hay who held off the attention of two defenders to bundle the ball into the net and square the tie at 1-1.
With no extra time in the cup, the tie would have to be settled directly by penalties.
Kerr Hay’s spot-kick was saved by Burgess but Lochee got themselves back into the shootout with successful penalties from Callum Moore, Louis Joyce, Ewan Murray and Calvin Colquhoun. Troon put one past the post meaning that after five penalties each we were still tied at 4-4.
On to sudden death it went with Connor Coupe’s effort crashing agonisingly off the bar and Troon made no mistake this time to book their place in the next round.
Troon were deserving victors today controlling the midfield for long spells and Lochee will be disappointed not to have made more of the extra man. Our supporters will probably feel that today was a missed opportunity.
Even so, it took sudden death penalties against a good team at a tough venue to put us out of the cup and we now focus on commitments closer to home.
Today’s man of the match was our leader at the back Calvin Colquhoun.
Wednesday evening sees us return to Midlands League action with an away fixture up in Blairgowrie. As always – COME ON THE CHEE!!!
