Darvel 4 Cumbernauld 5: Winters wins thriller for United

Cumbernauld made the brighter start and should have opened their account in the third minute when, from a corner kick, Terry Hewitt got a free header only to direct the ball wide of the post.

Darvel took the lead in the 20th minute. In a home attack United’s Jamie Kennedy’s clearance attempt struck Terry Hewitt and rebounded to Kenny Parris who netted.

A few minutes later it was 2-0. A tackle by United’s Andy Sinclair was penalised by the referee and Ian McCreadie converted the spotkick. United manager Andy Frame was inflamed at this decision and was ordered from the dugout.

United did get a goal in the last seconds of the first half when a Winters header struck an upright and Watson was on the spot to nod home.

Cumbernauld’s equaliser came three minutes after the break. Following good work from Dylan McGuigan, Scott Murphy scored, shooting through the Darvel defence.

But Darvel regained the lead when Mark Armour finished a fine attacking move.

Then came the roller coaster finish: firstly United were awarded a penalty after Robbie Winters was upended in the box and Scott Murphy duly converted for his second goal of the game; minutes later substitute Paddy McCabe, in another United attack, got into a tangle with Darvel goalkeeper David Markey and Ian McCreadie, in attempting to clear the danger, put the ball into his own net; a penalty kick for Darvel was then converted for the home team to make the score 4-4, and Robbie Winters got the winner in the last minute to give United a great win and their first three league points this season.