It was a disastrous day at the office for The Buffs as they were comfortably beaten 0-4 at home by
Rutherglen Glencairn.
It was a game that right from the beginning The Buffs looked fragile defensively which led to Rutherglen opening the scoring within the first 5 minutes following a cheap loss of possession and missed challenge from the Buffs rear guard. Although there was a strong appeal for a foul on full-back Chris Bell in the build-up to the goal The Buffs defence will still feel they should’ve dealt with the situation much better than they did. Despite The Buffs showing defensive frailties throughout there was nothing that could be done to stop the opposition from doubling their lead as Roan Fitzpatrick curled the ball into the top left corner from a free-kick from around the 30-yard mark
soon after they scored their first. The Buffs couldn’t get anything to click offensively for the majority of the match and Rutherglen killed off most chance of a Buffs comeback as they netted a third in 30 minutes following a series of failed attempts to win the ball from The Buffs. The home side had numerous attempts to create from the corner flag during the first 45 but nothing came from them, and it was in fact Rutherglen that nearly scored from a Buffs corner following a quick counter which led to the visitors hitting the post and nearly taking an incredible 0-4 lead into the half time break at Buffs Park. The Buffs headed into half time failing to make the opposition goalkeeper work and would’ve been looking for some sort of reaction coming out into the second half but once again it was The Glens that found the net through a worldie of a volley from outside the box following a slack pass in the middle of the park from The Buffs.
Somehow the day got even worse for The Buffs as a Rutherglen back-pass was not seen by the referee and manager Kevin Kelly was shown a red card after his appeals were deemed too much. Eva Bembo had Buffs first real glimpse at goal around the 60th minute but the forward could not get the ball out of his feet in time to get a shot away. The Buffs defence was opened up a few more times as the game grew old, and Rutherglen will feel they should have scored a few more goals after missing some great chances through a mix of poor shooting and good goalkeeping from Matheusz Miller in The Buffs goal. Mark Lamont had a great opportunity to score a consolation goal as the ball was squared across to him by Chris Bell but somehow the goalkeeper manged to get a foot to Lamont’s close-range effort. The Rutherglen goalkeeper ensured his clean sheet late in the day as he pulled off another great diving save to deny Adam Caldwell’s goal bound effort from distance.
The Glens were thoroughly deserving of the 3 points at Buffs Park as the home side were second best all over the pitch. The Buffs travel to Glasgow to face Vale of Clyde hoping for an improved performance to rectify yesterday’s defeat.
