Lawrence Henry was the hero as The Buffs won 1-2 and left Kirkintilloch with an important three points. It wasn’t a pretty performance, but a great team effort from Kevin Kelly’s side and goals from Boylan and Hendry got them over the line despite conceding a late equaliser which was cancelled out when Lawrence Hendry headed in, in the 90th minute to restore Buffs’ lead.
It was a quick start from the hosts who piled the pressure on straight from kick off when they won a corner in the opening seconds. The ball was floated all the way to the back post where striker, Baber had a free header but put the ball well wide of the near post.
Despite Buffs’ attempts to pass out from the back in the early stages, it was a long ball over the top which unlocked the Rob Roy defence when Boylan raced down the left side and latched onto the direct pass before rounding the goalkeeper and passing the ball into the back of the empty net.
Boylan was in behind again soon after when he caught Jake Stirling sleeping and nicked the ball off the defender’s toe. Bryan took a big touch around the goalkeeper again, but this time his touch took him too wide to think about shooting. Instead, Boylan cut the ball back into the box into the path of McMahon, but the Roy defence just managed to get out in time and clear the ball out the box.
Rob Roy looked dangerous without actually creating much clear cut in the early stages until Jack Maccalman was robbed of the ball by Jack Mckenna whilst trying to drive out of defence. McKenna dribbled to the edge of the box where he released a low shot towards the bottom right corner which ended up being fairly comfortably saved by Dylan Brown.
The hosts were beginning to take control of the game and found themselves in a great position once again when Euan Bowie was dribbled past at left back, which allowed The Roy’s right winger to get to the byline before pulling the ball back to the edge of the 6-yard box. Fortunately, no one was waiting to finish, which allowed Hendry to step out and clear the danger.
The Buffs were untidy during buildup throughout the game and this time it was Cammy Kerr who lost possession whilst he was attempting to turn his man on the edge of the Buffs box. Bowman put the challenge in before firing a powerful shot at goal which was saved by Brown with the goalkeeper then smothering the loose ball from his save.
Rob Roy’s best chance of the half came in the final minutes when Micheal Baber got in behind. The young number 1, Brown, attempted to get out and clear, but he hesitated whilst rushing out, which allowed the striker to get a toe to the ball in an attempt to flick the ball into the net, but his effort was deflected over the bar by the arm of Brown.
Both teams took a while to get going in the second half with very little being created across a very scrappy opening 20 minutes of the half until Lamont found himself in space in the Roy’s box. Boylan drove down the left wing before putting a cross in which was half cleared by Scott Gibson. The ball then fell to the feet of Lamont, just right of the penalty spot, where the midfielder took a touch before hitting a left-footed half volley which bounced just the wrong side of the far post.
Jack McMahon was kept quiet by The Roy defence throughout, but that did not stop the striker from working his socks and he showed great quality when he held the ball in, up front before playing in Lennox, who had made a great run on the inside of Jack. Nathan took a touch to the right of the box before hitting a great strike, from a tough angle, which was tipped onto the bar by Aitken in the Rob Roy goal.
The Buffs fans had thought their team had doubled their lead when the ball fell to substitute, Dylan Duncan in the box, which allowed the forward to half volley the ball towards the far post. The shot looked destined to find the side netting but just lacked enough power which gave Aitken a chance to dive across and save Duncan’s effort.
Dylan Brown was called into action for the first time in the second half when Jamie McLean was played through on goal after The Buffs defence and midfield was cut open by a great turn from midfielder, Bowman. Mclean took a good first touch, but his second touch took him just too close to Brown, who managed to dive at the feet of the Rob Roy forward and stop him from equalising.
The Buffs had begun to drop noticeably deeper in the final 10 minutes as they looked to just see out the game, but their decision had the opposite effect when it gave the Rob Roy, right back, far too much time to deliver the ball into the box from just inside the Buffs’ half. The cross floated over the head of Maccalman at the front post and found Bowman, who had time and space in the centre to head past Brown and equalise for his side.
The game looked destined to end in a draw until Lamont took a short corner to Duncan on the edge of the box, who then returned the ball to Mark Lamont. Mark beat his man before sending a dangerous cross into the back post where Lawrence Hendry was on hand to head the ball into the bottom right corner to salvage the three points for his side in the dying minutes.
Manager, Kevin Kelly was full of pride when speaking about the result and the resilience his team showed,
“Really pleased to get the win, I thought it was thoroughly deserved, the lads put a lot of effort in and when you concede a goal in the 87th minute it can be a bit of a sucker punch, but it shows the character of these players and what we’ve been able to build over the last 6 months and instil into them. To drag each other through that and go and get a goal in injury time was great and I was really proud of them to manage to get over the line because it’s easy to go into a shell when things don’t go your way. Last week we were much below par than what we would expect, but fair play to the players to get the result”.
Kevin highlighted a few performances in particular which really impressed him,
“I thought Bryan Boylan ran his heart out and he was a real leader for us in that sense. Bryan leads from the front with his energy and enthusiasm. I thought that for being out of the team for so long and being bit-part for a bit, Nathan Lennox when called upon has given us absolutely everything and yesterday his performance on the pitch was exceptional. He’s became that kind of Mr Reliable for us, whenever called upon he always seems to deliver for us, so I was really pleased for him yesterday. But again, you could individualise everybody yesterday around managing to get that result. It was a real team collective, but Nathan Lennox was excellent and I’m glad to see him getting more minutes under his belt. It shows his willingness to learn and progress to become a much better player since he’s been at the club”
Kevin Kelly will now lead his side into a massive game under the lights on Tuesday night at Buffs Park against title favourites Arthurlie FC.
