Anvils exit cup

GRETNA 2008 bowed out of the Scottish Cup last Saturday following a 3-1 defeat away to Auchinleck Talbot. The West Premier side opened the scoring on ten minutes when, after being played through on goal, Kyle McAvoy fired the ball home. Anvils stopper Jim Atkinson then saved well to stop Ruaridh Langan doubling the home side’s advantage. Soon it was Gretna’s turn to attack, Sean McKenzie was inches away from getting on the end of a deep cross and levelling the game. Just before the half hour a quick break up the park saw Auchinleck add a second as Scott Schoneville curled the ball home from close range. Two minutes later things went from bad to worse for the visitors when full back Hayden Tait received a second yellow card and was sent off. And the hosts made it a long way back for their opponents on the hour when Luke Gillies finished from close range. Minutes later McKenzie went on a driving run through the Talbot midfield before firing agonisingly wide. The Gretna forward then saw his attempted cross bounce off the upright before falling for Andy Oram who volleyed home to pull a goal back. But, in the 20 minutes that remained Gretna were unable to reduce the deficit any further and their Scottish Cup campaign had ended for another season. Speaking after the match, Gretna boss Vinnie Parker said: “It was probably a game of two halves. “We were really sloppy with the first goal, but I still thought we were in the game. The sending off kills us, but I thought the response was brilliant. “In the second half we showed amazing grit and determination. I thought overall, with our second half performance, we were unlucky not to get something from the game. “We created loads of chances and we were by far the better side. I think if we took one or two chances then it might have been a different story.” This weekend Parker’s troops make the journey to East Stirlingshire in the Lowland League, the manager added: “If we can take our attitude, desire and work rate from the second half of this game into next week, then we’ve got a real chance. “It’s the two teams languishing at the bottom of the table and both want to leapfrog each other. “It’ll be a battle, we need to go and apply ourselves and try and get three points up there.”