McBookie West League One

ROYAL ALBERT 1

ARDROSSAN WINTON ROVERS 3

DEPLETED Winton made the long trek to Stonehouse still without David Adams and Graham Longair and made one change, with David Smith coming in for Sean Mears.

A tough match was expected with Albert having had some good results recently and having several players with higher level experience in their squad.

Rovers had the first chance in three minutes when Smith headed a Lee Davidson corner over the bar. In eight minutes it took a great save by Chris Lamb down at his right post to deny Chris Dolan from his 20-yard free-kick. From the resulting corner Fraser Stobie headed wide.

Rovers should probably have taken the lead in 15 minutes when Jamie McKenna played in Steven Tan who from a few yards out shot wide.

However they went ahead five minutes later when the ball was played out to Davie Cunningham and he got to the line and fired the ball across the goalmouth to Smith at the back post and he made no mistake, netting from close range.

Albert then won a free-kick right on the edge of the Winton box in 23 minutes but Dolan’s effort deflected off the wall. They almost equalised from this corner which caused a goalmouth scramble which eventually saw Jo Maxwell clear the ball off the line before being cleared from the box.

In 32 minutes Lamb made a comfortable save from a 25-yard Greg Fernie effort.

Rovers had the last chance before the break after Michael Lennox was fouled just outside the box but Lee Davidson’s free kick went wide.

The hosts came out in the second half all guns blazing looking to get back into the game and they put a lot of pressure on the Winton defence for the first quarter of an hour. In 59 minutes Dolan hit a 30-yard free-kick wide. A couple of minutes later an over-hit Lee Davidson cross wasn’t cleared and the ball fell to Cunningham who shot wide from 10 yards.

A good bit of play from McKenna saw his ball across the face of the goal put out for a corner that came to nothing in 63 minutes. Two minutes later Rovers doubled their lead when Michael Lennox hit a free-kick from the right to the back post where Andy McGregor rose and headed the ball into the far side of the net.

Albert pulled a goal back in 80 minutes when Lamb came off his line to claim a high ball into the box but Michael Archer got his head to it first and it went over the keeper’s hands and into the net.

Three minutes later the Winton keeper denied Barry Murdoch with another great save. With five minutes remaining, a corner caused another goalmouth scramble in the Winton box which saw the ball cleared off the line again before the danger was cleared.

Winton secured the three points three minutes into time added on when with Albert pressing for the equaliser the ball was played down the left to McKenna, who played a great pass inside to Tan and he ran into the box and shot past Somerville from 15 yards.

ARDROSSAN WR: Lamb; M Davidson, L Davidson, McGregor, Maxwell, Lennox, Smith, Campbell, Tan, McKenna, Cunningham. Subs: Bruce, C Wilson, Watson, D Wilson, Ashe.