Kirkintilloch Rob Roy boss Stewart Maxwell delighted with cup win

Despite dominating their Scottish Junior Cup tie against Pumpherston at Guy’s Meadow, Rob Roy went in at the interval a goal down.

But after Maxwell’s half-time ‘observations’ they managed to turn things around and book their place in the next roundwith a 2-1 win.

Maxwell said: “We should have had it out of sight; we could have been four or five up at half-time, we hit the woodwork four times.

“They sat in and tried to hit us on the break and going in 1-0 down you could feel this was a potential cup disaster coming with us having all the pressure and most of the possession.

“To be honest I gave the hair dryer treatment at half-time because we had been so sloppy in the final third and it seemed to work.

“We got a deserved equaliser and then brought on Gary Carroll, who’s had a bit of a hard time of it recently because he’s been the only fit striker.

“He’s taken a bit of criticism off the supporters but I thought he changed the game for us. He ruffled their back line and just made the wee bit of difference we were needing on the day and I was delighted he got the winner because his performance deserved it.

“The players are fighting and digging deep and that got us into the hat for the next round. At the end of the day Glenafton won 13-0 in their cup tie, but if you win 1-0 with a last-minute own goal you’re still in the hat.

“It’s all about getting through and they dug deep, rallied and answered the call.”

Rabs return to league duty this Saturday as they seek to climb off the bottom of the Premiership table.

Having got their first win of the season against Rossvale last time out, they’ll be looking for another positive result Kilbirnie Ladeside at Guy’s Meadow.

Maxwell said: “We’ve won two games in a row and while I’m not shouting from the rooftops that we’ve turned the corner but at least we’ve got a wee bit of form and we’ve shown that we can win games.

“We’re in a better position than we were three or four weeks ago.”