New Coin Holdings West of Scotland Cup

SHOTTS BON ACCORD 5

WHITLETTS VICTORIA 0

VICS crashed out of the West of Scotland Cup in an embarrassing fashion with a heavy defeat at the hands of Shotts at Hannah Park.

With promotion ambitions taking priority and manager George Grierson and assistant Mark Ferris absent due to long term holidays book well before they took over their roles at Dam Park, Kevin Deeney and Mark Daly stepped in to take over the roles in the dugout.

And with vital league matches against Dalry Thistle and Annbank United coming up in the midweek ahead, the opportunity was taken to rest some key players

Vics started the match well, taking the game to their opponents and on a number of occasions went close, notably an Adam Forsyth chance at the near post from a Jordan Boyd cross that the Shotts keeper did well to save. And it was against the run of play that the Lanarkshire side took the lead in the 21st minute. Cummins latching onto a through ball and firing low past Vics debutant keeper Louis Kerr.

On the half hour the hosts almost doubled their advantage when Kerr saved a Maguire shot but it took the intervention of Boyd to clear the ball off the line before Evans fired narrowly over from the edge of the box.

Whitletts were pressing forward but struggled to create any clear-cut chances with the home defence able to scramble clear but two minutes before the interval they fell two behind. As keeper Kerr took a touch on a Raymond Buchanan pass-back, the young keeper failed to control the ball, allowing Cummins to nick it off him and in his attempts to redeem the situation, the young keeper brought the striker down with his challenge, leaving the referee no option but to point to the spot. Danny Burns stepped forward to fire home from 12 yards

The second half started in a similar fashion. Graeme Barbour just failed to connect with a Ross George cross at the back post while at the other end, Kerr saved a couple of shots from distance but any hopes Vics had of getting back into the tie were ended in 69 minutes in the simplest of fashions. From a long throw into the penalty spot, Watson volleyed home.

Whitletts were a beaten side and their reaction was poor as Shotts threatened to over run their visitors. Martin went close with a curling shot that drifted wide but the full back was to get his name on the scoresheet in 77 minutes. A simple run along the edge of the penalty area saw the defender evade three challenges before he fired low past Kerr who was rooted to the spot.

And then to complete the visitors misery, Burns grabbed his second goal with a simple finish in injury-time to set up a home tie against Beith in the third round.

An afternoon Vics will clearly want to forget.

WHITLETTS VICTORIA: LT Kerr; Ogston 3. Boyd 4. Mullen 5 Fisher 6. Buchanan 7. L. Kerr (Ewart 70) 8. Sloan(Dempsey 79) 9. Forsyth 10. Barbour (Milligan 70) 11. George. Subs (not used): Anderson. I Kerr.