Kilsyth Rangers beat Irvine Meadow in Scottish Junior Cup

It would be wrong to say the result of the third round tie was never in doubt, but over the piece Rangers were by far the better team and could easily have won by a much bigger margin.

In recent weeks Rangers have made a habit of losing an early goal; this time it was their turn to go ahead early.

They had already created a couple of chances before, in only the fifth minute and following on a bit of a scramble in the Meadow goalmouth, Phil Dolan returned the ball for an unmarked Salim Kouider-Aissa to shoot home.

It was his 17th goal so far this season with only about one third of the campaign gone.

Rangers continued to dominate and had chances to add to their score. The visitors’ only reply came from a free-kick which was stopped by the defensive wall.

Dolan, who was creating havoc down the left, came very close with a shot which rattled the crossbar and Danny Smith also had a great chance but just failed to get the right contact.

Eventually Meadow did start to come into the game and a poor kick out by Kilsyth keeper David Tait was collected and a shot from Aaron Connolly went in which was deflected onto the post for a corner.

Rangers went in one up at half-time but it could easily have been three or four.

Meadow had a brief spell of pressure immediately after the interval but then Rangers resumed control, although Darren Miller did put in a fine free-kick which struck the top of Tait’s post.

One goal was never going to be enough in this game and Rangers got their second goal just after the hour mark; a free-kick from about 40 yards by John Higgins barely rose a foot above the grass but it completely deceived everyone and somehow ended in the net behind Michael White to double Rangers’ advantage.

Meadow were now down, but not yet out.

Following a bit of a stramash in the Rangers goal area Meadow substitute Ryan Carnwath was sent off for a second yellow card, having been on the pitch barely 10 minutes.

Meadow were also awarded a penalty which Connolly stepped up to take, but he sent it wide of the post to end the visitors’ hopes.