, Jack Henry
, Jack Halliday
Team: Andrew Leishman, William Lyle, Gordon Pope, Ross Harvey, Neil McPhersonWick Academy were knocked out of the Scottish Cup with a first round defeat at the hands of West of Scotland side Auchinleck Talbot. Twelve times Scottish Junior Cup winners Auchinleck travelled to Harmsworth Park in good form sitting in 2nd spot in the table and had beat both Wigton & Bladnoch and Banks O’ Dee to reach this stage of the competition.
Tablot came out of the blocks flying and forced three corners in the first few minutes, but it was Academy that had the first pop at goal with an acrobatic bicycle-kick volley by Jack Henry whistled just past the outside of the post on 4 minutes.
At the other end Gordon Pope sent a wicked volley across the face of goal but there were no takers, and Gary Manson then had a well struck free-kick from 25 yards out that went just over the cross-bar.
The visitors took the lead on 37 minutes. Sean McCarthy came well out of his goal to try to collect a high ball that was swung in from the right wing. He couldn’t keep a hold of it in the swirling wind and it fell to Jamie Glasgow and he lobbed it home over the top of McCarthy and Alan Farquhar to the delight of the travelling Auchinleck supporters.
A minute before the break Academy came within a whisker of the equaliser. A great ball over the top of the Talbot back-line was plucked out of the air by Davie Allan who homed in on goal with only keeper Andrew Leishman to beat, but he dragged his shot inches past the outside of the post.
9 minutes after the restart Academy were right back in the game. Gary Manson drove forward through the middle of the park and slipped the ball into the box for Jack Halliday. His attempt was blocked by the feet of keeper Leishman, but he pushed it wide to Macadie who swung it back into the box where it fell to Jack Halliday and he swept it home with his left peg for his first Scottish Cup goal for the club. Game on!
Parity however didn’t last for long as within two minutes Auchinleck were back in front, Stephen Wilson with a sweet left foot strike from just inside the box that flew past the outstretched McCarthy and into the net.
In feisty affair there were some crunching tackles going in and McCarthy kept Academy in the game when he pulled off a great save to deny Calvin Kemp.
On 68 minutes Academy were down to 10 men when Grant Steven got a straight red from referee Alex Shepherd for a mis-timed tackle on Graham Wilson.
The street-wise Talbot controlled the remainder of the game and they ensured their name went into the hat for the next round, where they now face another road-trip to play Cove Rangers. A battling performance from Academy but alas it just wasn’t to be.
