Rangers tumble out of Scottish

Rangers tumbled out of the Scottish to cup favourites, Irvine Meadow on Saturday.

No real surprise there really, but it was the manner in which they went that really frustated the fans. It was handed to Irvine on a plate, with at least two of the three goals for the visitors coming from defensive mistakes. Rangers goal from Paddy Flannery was the pick of the bunch, and briefly, it seemed as if Rangers might take the tie to a replay. However, within a couple of minutes a third Meadow score ended that notion.

There was a disastrous start to the game for Kilsyth. From the kick-off Meadow attacked and with barely half a minute played the Rangers defence was static, looking for offside, but Kevin Barr, playing to the whistle waltzed through and sidestepped Duke, placing the ball into an empty net.

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Rangers had their first corner after only three minutes but it yielded nothing. Meadow, though, were having most of the play, and McGeown nearly made it two with a great shot that was just inches wide.

Rangers were not just sitting back though, and just after the quarter-hour mark they had a chance when McLellan got in a good shot which took a slight deflection off a defender to go narrowly past for another corner. It was Meadow who were still enjoying most of the pressure though and came close a few more times, a great header from their McGinty coming very close.

It was the 39th minute when all their efforts finally paid off with a second goal. A fierce shot in was knocked out by Duke, but ex-Kilsyth player, Michael Hughes, picked up the rebound off the post and netted easily.

Meadow took up where they had left off from the restart and the home defence was soon under pressure again. Rangers were trying to get forward though with Joe Barclay working very hard, but suffering from a lack of decent service.

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Both sides were beginning to rack up a few bookings from overly-officious referee, Andrew Dallas, although it could not be described as a very dirty match.

Rangers made their first substitution after an hour with Phil Dolan coming on for Livingstone.

Meadow were now sitting back a little but were shocked when a ball came over to Paddy Flannery from a wide right position and he pulled Rangers right back into the contest with a fine header.

There were another couple of bookings and substitutions in the next couple of minutes as things began to hot up but the game was ended as a contest when Duke spilled a low shot from well outside the box, and Fleming, following up, knocked in the third goal.

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There were a few more bookings and changes in the last 20 minutes, but little goalmouth action from either side. It ended rather tamely with Meadow not unexpectedly becoming the second side through to the fifth round, with many others still waiting to play their third-round ties.

Now Rangers must regroup and concentrate on their main objective for this season – promotion back into the Super Leagues.

KILSYTH: Duke, Hogg, Carr, Doyle, McGinty, D. Barclay, Kelly, McLellan, J. Barclay, Flannery and Livingstone. Subs: McAteer, D. Waters, Dolan and Tait.

IRVINE MEADOW: Wardrope, Swift, Dillon, McDonald, Robertson, McGinty, Fleming, McGewon, Barr, Hughes and Hamilton. Subs:Jaconelli, McGowan, Wingate, Ryan, Milliken, Turner and Hewitt.

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Rangers’ match and ball sponsors were Horsburgh Construction, Parkfoot Social Club and George Burns.

Rangers have an away game this Saturday, when they travel to face Cambuslang Rangers in a league match. Kick-off is 2pm.

Kilsyth Rangers 1

Irvine Meadow 3

Emirates Scottish Junior Cup Fourth Round