McBookie Championship

CUMBERNAULD UNITED 3

DALRY THISTLE 2

ON-form Dalry made the trip to Guy's Meadow, hoping to build on the previous weekend's victory at home to Girvan.

However within three minutes they found themselves a goal down. Some good link-up play down the Cumbernauld right saw a cross come into the box, the Thistle defence failed to deal with it and the ball was nodded into the net by Paul Callander from six yards.

Ten minutes later things went from bad to worse for the visitors as a break down the left hand side which looked to be offside resulted in another ball into the box. Thistle had three attempts to clear, but the ball was bundled home by Callander at the second attempt.

Dalry were finding attacks hard to come by and only a fantastic defensive header by Lewis Kirkwood stopped the home side going further in front.

Gavin Friels' side came out slightly brighter in the second period and a 25-yard shot from Ian Cashmore went straight to the goalie and a wild strike by Zack Simpson after some fine link-up play served notice the visitors could make inroads. The third came on the hour though when more slack Thistle defending resulted in a free strike from 12 yards on the volley by Kieran McAleenan flying past Blair Lochhead and surely finished the game as a contest.

The last 13 minutes though were drama-filled to say the least.

Firstly a harsh penalty from McAleenan, given against Kirkwood when he looked to have played the ball, was brilliantly saved by Lochhead, who also saved the rebound.

Then four minutes later a strike from all of 40 yards by Dalry right-back Simpson flew past the helpless keeper into the top corner.

Dalry weren’t finished and played with a passion missing in the first 75 minutes. In 87 minutes substitute Mark Archdeacon pounced on a mistake in midfield to feed Cashmore who curled a delightful chip from 25 yards into the top corner.

Dalry huffed and puffed in the dying minutes but couldn’t find the equaliser.

DALRY THISTLE: B Lochhead; Simpson, McGowan, Kirkwood, K Lochhead, Hannah, Olliver (Cummings) Cashmore, Stevenson (Archdeacon) Stuart.