Brogan agony as Lanark United miss out on promotion by one point

John Brogan will be speaking to his 15-man squad this week with a view to retaining them for next season

Rivals East Kilbride pipped the Yowes by the tiny margin after winning their last two league matches, 2-0 at Gartcairn last Wednesday and 1-0 at home to bottom club Newmains on Saturday.

The two East Kilbride victories were agonising for Lanark manager John Brogan, whose team have finished fourth, level on points with fifth placed Clydesdale rivals Carluke Rovers.

Brogan said: “I’m gutted not to be promoted. The players are gutted. But that is football.

“If you can’t win promotion off your own back then you don’t deserve it.

“We had a poor start to the season, but we improved a lot when we got new players in.

“From September onwards, we went on a good run and only lost two games until the end of the season.

“So I can’t fault the boys’ effort. It was great.”

John said he was “disappointed” that – for the East Kilbride match – Gartcairn had made seven changes from the team which had beaten Lanark 3-1 at Moor Park in United’s final league game on May 6.

What made missing out on promotion even more galling for John was that Lanark beat East Kilbride 2-1 and 3-1 in the league this season.

Hopefully United can retain key men and get promoted with Carluke next year.