HAVING travelled to Lanarkshire on their last outing, Beith’s skeleton squad of 11 players travelled to the ‘tail of the bank’ last Saturday to take on St Andrews BC at wet and windy Inverclyde Academy and despite not being at their best, came away with all three points.

The first goal arrived in 16 minutes when Beith were awarded a free-kick 30 yards out.

With everyone anticipating a floated delivery or indeed a shot, Jake played a quick ball into the box to Jack who fired across the face of the goal where Matthew Sloan was lurking to fire towards goal. With defenders now in attendance, Robbie Wilson was fastest to react, firing home from inside the six-yard box to give Beith a deserved lead. However, it was a lead which Beith were to lose with just 20 minutes to play when slackness in their ranks left big Cammy cruelly exposed and unable to deny the home forward his moment of glory.

St Andrews tails were up and fears were high that Beith’s away day woes were set to continue, especially with a lenient referee reluctant to curb the home side’s ‘over enthusiastic’ challenges. To their credit though, the Beith lads showed great determination and resolve and rolled their collective sleeves up to get their noses back in front with seven minutes left on the clock. A driving run by Scott fed Lee out on the left who squared to Robbie who side-footed past the home keeper for his, and Beith’s second.

The rest of the game was played at a frantic pace with St Andrews trying to force their way back, however Beith were well marshalled by captain Graeme Crawford and settled it with the best moment of the match in the very last minute. Ross fed Lewis up the right flank and his shot from a wide location was deflected skywards some 20 yards out which seemed to take an age to fall back to ground level. However, when it did it was met on the volley by the right foot of Ali Lee and flew past the home keeper, which was quickly followed with him being swamped by his ecstatic team mates. Sunshine on a rainy day indeed.

Full-time: St Andrews 1-3 Beith Juniors.

Beith Man of the Match: Graeme Crawford Beith squad: Cammy King; Jake Jacobson, Matthew Sloan Jack Craig, Graeme Crawford, Scott Brown, Lee Salisbury, Ali Lee, Robbie Wilson, Lewis Steele.

For the full story see this week's Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald.