YFS
Rutherglen Glencairn deservedly took the honours in the hard-fought Lady Darling cup final when a late goal from club captain Ryan Bennett secured them the victory in dreadful conditions at Somervell Park, Cambuslang. Glencairn certainly had much of the possession and chances but Musselburgh Windsor proved themselves to be no pushovers and made the most of their possession, if Lady Darling’s luck had shown a little more, it may have been Windsor walking away with the famous old trophy.
Glencairn began the match at a breathtaking pace and almost had an early goal when Martin McCann picked up a misdirected clearance inside Windsor's penalty area. He passed inside for Thomas Robertson who fired narrowly over the crossbar. Ryan Bennett showed some great footwork when he was able to evade the challenges of four Windsor defenders and see his shot deflected into the side netting for a corner kick.
With just over ten minutes gone, Craig Dallas received the ball out wide and made a powerful run before passing inside for Bennett, his first shot was blocked by Daniel Howie, his second attempt from the rebound was struck low and keeper Daniel Laing got down to save.
Rutherglen looked comfortable passing the ball about and their relentless attack on the Musselburgh goal continued when, from a long throw into the Windsor penalty area, Dale Wallace chested the ball down for Thomas Robertson’s shot to be deflected for a corner kick. Bennett’s footwork was plain for all to see when he received a ball 35 yards from goal, turned and beat one player, held off the challenge of another before shooting from twenty yards, but again Laing saved the day and put behind for a corner kick.
It was only a matter of time before Glencairn took one of their chances and it came in the 17th minute. Glen keeper Chris Truesdale sent a free kick deep into the Musselburgh half. The ball bounced and cut through the Windsor back four and Connor McGuiness read the path of the ball and chased it down before sliding it past the oncoming keeper, 1-0.
With 20 minutes gone, Musselburgh were fortunate to be only one goal down. Rutherglen were still having chances but they started to keep possession and string some passes together. After 26 minutes, Anes Subasic managed a shot on goal but directed it straight towards Truesdale.
Shortly after the half-hour mark and totally against the run of play, Musselburgh won a free kick out wide deep inside Glencairn’s half, the ball was sent high towards goal and Subasic rose almost unchallenged and the ball sailed into the Rutherglen goal.
Some indecision in the Rutherglen defence almost handed Musselburgh a second when another free kick was hit high into the box for Chris Stevenson to get his head onto the ball and send goal wards, Truesdale managed to stretch and tip over the crossbar. Windsor were finishing the half strongly and Subasic was proving himself to be a nuisance, winning the ball 30 yards from goal. His shot was deflected wide and from the resulting corner, the ball was hit across the face of goal and a Glens defender almost knocked it into the goal but Truesdale got down to make a great goal-line stop.