New Coin Holdings West of Scotland Cup Second Round

ARDROSSAN WINTON ROVERS 2

CUMBERNAULD UNITED 5

ROVERS suffered their first defeat since September 12 as they went down to their Super First Division rivals at Winton Park.

Despite heavy rain all week intensive work by the ground staff saw the pitch declared playable.

Winton had recent signings Zak Burney and Andy Walker in the squad with the former starting,

It was end-to-end stuff from the start and Ryan Caddis ran down the wing in the first couple of minutes but his low, hard cross was cut out at the near post.

United took the lead in 11 minutes when Steff McDonald rose to head home a corner. Ben Carson almost equalised in 13 minutes when his 30-yard shot hit the right hand post but was cleared.

The visitors doubled their lead two minutes later when Dale Clark’s 25-yard effort flew into the net .

It was 3-0 in the 21st minute after Darren Miller picked up a yellow card for a foul about 30 yards out. From the resulting free-kick Kieran Brown hammered the ball home.

Winton were giving away too many free-kicks and Carson picked up what proved to be a costly yellow card in 25 minutes.

Two minutes later visiting goalie Barry Fraser got to a good ball over the United defence just before Ian Reid reached it. Rovers then almost pulled goal back when a poor Ross Foley pass-back started rolling towards the goal but the defence cleared the ball after a goalmouth scramble.

Rovers were left with a mountain to climb when they were reduced to 10 men just before half-time after Carson was shown a second yellow card.

In 49 minutes Winton pulled one back when a good ball was played up to John Bradford on the edge of the box. The former Ayr United striker turned and played the ball into the box where Ian Reid was on hand to shoot past Fraser to make it 3-1.

Rovers’ hopes of a fightback suffered a further blow when Brown made it 4-1 with a 35-yard free-kick in 51 minutes..

It was 4-2 seven minutes later when skipper Ryan Caddis picked up the ball on the right side of the box before running in on goal and firing past Fraser from a narrow angle.

Six minutes later home goalie Michael Wardrope made a good save from Clark.

Fraser then made a good save from Darren Miller in 66 minutes as Winton looked to salvage something from the game.

Bradford shot over the bar after a good lay-off from Reid two minutes later.

Caddis came close in 73 minutes with a chip shot which went just past the far post before Wardrope saved another shot from Clark with his feet.

It was all over with 10 minutes to go when Dominic O’Halloran ran onto a pass into the box before slipping the ball underWardrope as he came out of his goal.

Rovers kept going and as time ran out Caddis had a shot cleared off the line and then a 25 yard shot from former Irvine Vics man Bobby Colligan came back off the post.

Chris Strain Snr's side will now be looking to bounce back on Saturday as they head to Fife to take on Hill of Beath in the third round of the Scottish Junior Cup.

ARDROSSAN WINTON ROVERS: M Wardrope; Cochrane, Miller, Richardson, Holden, Carson, Willet, Reid,,Bradford, R Caddis, Burney, Subs: Walker, Colligan, Breen, D Caddis, R Wardrope.