It’s the first in a monumental double header for The Buffs as they travel to James McGrory Park to face St Roch’s FC before welcoming the Glasgow side to Buffs Park on the final day of the season in 2 weeks’ time. Kevin Kelly’s top 3 hopes would’ve taken a slight knock after his side was defeated 3-0 at Dunterlie Park on Monday night, however promotion into the WOSFL Premier Division is still very much on the cards for The Buffs if they can end the season with 2 positive results against “The Candy”.
It’s been a decent season for Iain Kennedy’s St Roch’s, who find themselves still with a chance of promotion as they head into their final 3 games, although it would really take a bit of a miracle to see The Candy promoted this campaign after defeat on Wednesday night to Arthurlie all but confirmed their status as a WOSFL First Division club for next season. St Roch’s looked like mid-season favourites for the title after leading the table for 6 consecutive weeks from December into January, but a tough second half of the season has seen The Candy drop to 5th place in the division. The month of March was especially difficult for today’s hosts, with only 1 win and 4 defeats coming in 5 games around the time. St Roch’s did follow that horrible run with 3 wins on the bounce against Blantyre, Cumbernauld and Kilbirnie before most recently losing to Arthurlie 2-3 just a few nights ago. The sides haven’t met since last season, when The Buffs were defeated 2-0 upon visiting James McGrory Park, however, were victorious with a 4-3 win in a thrilling contest earlier in the season. Striker, Evan Galasso leads the way in The Candy’s scoring charts with 17 league goals this season, which makes him the 3rd top scorer in the whole division. The Buffs’ top scorer race has become much tighter in recent weeks, with captain Bryan Boylan still topping the table on 12 league goals, just ahead of Jack McMahon on 11 and Mark Lamont on 9.
It will need to be a drastic improvement on the performance on Monday night for The Buffs if they want to strengthen their grip on one of the promotion spots heading into the final day of the season. A Buffs win at James McGrory Park could actually be enough to secure promotion for Kevin Kelly’s side, however, it would need Kilbirnie to defeat Rutherglen for things to turn out this way.
