Cumbernauld United make impreessive start to league campaign

This wasn’t the case at Whitletts on Saturday, for although Cumbernauld United were disappointing in the first 45 minutes they were still the better team and were outstanding in the second half.

Despite not being at their best in the first half United went into the break two goals up.

United’s first opportunity came in the third minute. David Reid, playing wide on the left, gathered in the ball and glided past the defender, but his shot was deflected over the bar.

The resulting corner was swung over and found Ross McCabe at the back post, but his header was saved by the keeper

It was the eighth minute before Whitletts had their first effort on goal, a corner played in was comfortably gathered in by Kenny Giles in goal for United.

Their second chance of the game game a couple of minutes later when an excellent ball played in behind the United defence failed to find a Whitletts player.

In the 18th minute a ball played through from Conor Stevenson found Martin Shiels whose effort brought out a great save from the Whitletts keeper.

Cumbernauld were nearly the makers of their own downfall when a slack pass from Shiels was played to a Whitletts player, but luckily defender Paul Murphy came to his rescue, stepping in to stop the advancing player.

On the half hour mark Whitletts had a couple chances from successive corners but neither efforts troubled the keeper with both shots going wide of the goals

Cumbernauld were starting to play some nice football now. An Alan Benton run and cross down the right found Reid unmarked at the back post, but unfortunately his header sailed over the bar.

Cumbernauld finally broke the deadlock on 40 minutes, an excellent passage of play which involved most of the midfield ending with the ball played through to Stefan Law who made no mistake in firing his shot past the oncoming keeper.

Four minutes later and United extended their lead when Reid finally got his reward for some excellent work on the left.

It was a different team that came out in the second half, same players but a totally different attitude. They totally dominated the second half and how it only finished 3-0 was a mystery.

It took until the 58th minute for United to extend their lead, a move in and around the 18 yard box seeing the ball ping pong around the box before Paul Callander ratted it into the net.

Whitletts were like a rabbit in a car headlights; they had no response to the constant pressure from Cumbernauld and it wasn’t until the 70th min that they had their first effort of the second half, a shot from well outside the box was easily dealt with by Giles.

The highlight of the game was the way Tony Stevenson dealt with a long ball that was played over the top by the Whitletts defence; he effortlessly pulled it out the air and played a 40 yard pass to launch another attack, the Whitletts striker was still wondering where the ball had went to long after it was cleared away.

Cumbernauld hope to make it two league wins out of two at Larkhall tonight (Wednesday) and welcome Neilston for their first home game on Saturday.