Derby day delight for Calderbank United

Oct 22 2008 by Colin Paterson, Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser

DELIGHTED Calderbank United gaffer Eamonn Reilly hailed his battling troops after they secured a late Scottish Cup derby day victory.

The Stirling & District AFA outfit advanced to the second round of the competition thanks to a narrow success over Monklands rivals AS Airdrie in this seven-goal thriller.

Both sides finally got the chance to pit their wits against each other after the tie had been called off on two previous occasions.

And they didn’t disappoint once the action got underway, serving up a seven-goal cracker that was only decided in the final minutes by Martin McQue’s winning strike.

Calderbank had raced into a two-goal lead with Martin Harty and Steven McMahon hitting the target.

An own goal put the hosts 3-2 up but they were pegged back again as Airdrie attempted to force a replay.

But with five minutes to go, McQue popped up to fire Calderbank to glory.

Boss Reilly told the Advertiser: “I am delighted with the result and pleased with the performance of the team.

“We started off really well and scored two quick goals but unfortunately we took our foot off the gas and allowed them back into it.

“We didn’t want a replay so I was relieved to see Martin get the winner for us near the end.

“The game was really competitive, both teams played attacking football and there were lots of good tackles.”

Reilly continued: “It is always nice to go on a couple of good cup runs and the Scottish is an important competition.

“I don’t think we have ever been further than the third or fourth round so it would be great to do better than that this season.”

Calderbank will take a trip into the unknown this weekend when they travel to Ayrshire to face Dalry in the first round of the West of Scotland Cup.

Reilly added: “It is a bit of a trek for us but we are looking forward to the game.

“We don’t know anything about Dalry which causes a few problems but that means we can just concentrate on ourselves.”