Troon goalie Adam Strain 'letting the train take the strain'

Troon Juniors 1 GLENAFTON ATHLETIC 1

Tommy Bryce, the Glens former manager, now player coach at Troon, stamped  his authority on the first half at Portland Park. The Glens were on the backfoot from the kick-off and although they ventured up field on occassion, Troon enjoyed large periods of territorial advantage.  Sustained Troon pressure saw the Glens struggle to defend a series of well- worked corner kicks and fail to pick up men first at the near post and then at the far post. Much of the half was scrappy, with too much head-tennis on show, where the Glens were more Henman than Federer. It was no surprise when Troon finally opened scoring, another lost aerial battle deep in the Glens half and Troon's top scorer Alan McTurk latched on to the loose ball and despatched it past Gary Matthews.

Troon's tails were up at the start of the second half and some Chris Strain trickery on the right wing nearly saw the home side double their lead.  Minutes later Matthews in the Glens goal tried  some trickery of his own by dribbling a pass back across his open goal , only to be pounced upon by the Troon attack. On a different day Troon could now have secured a 3-0 lead, but the Glens survived this scare and remarkably went on to dominate the game. Joe Carruth and Stevie Agnew enjoyed a new lease of life on the right side of the park, but both paid the price with the tiring Troon defenders taking turns in chopping them down. Agnew in particular deserves great credit for not resorting to retaliation. His perserverance was soon rewarded when a one-two with Stevie Mallan, resulted in another clinical finish from the Glens new striker. Minutes later the same duo could have sealed the game after mesmerising the Troon defence, but it was not to be, and the game ended as it had started, all  square.

Stevie Agnew wheels away to celebrate Stevie Mallan's (out of picture) equaliser

 

Agnew, Mallan and Boyd come close to the clincher

Other Scores.

Cumnock 3 Kilwinning 1 , Johnstone 3 Auchinleck 3, Larkhall 2 Arthurlie 0, Pollok 1 Maryhill 1, Renfrew 2 Bellshill 1

Kind of says it all about our performance yesterday that a 44year old man dominated midfield. Still 4pts from to poor performances cant be bad, last year it would have been two 1-0 defeats. We'll have to improve this week, I think it'll be a toughy.

mark

Thought Tommy had a good game on sat Mark,but i think we all new he would,we sometimes looked a bit shaky at the back,but we steadied up in time,they certainly like to make us bite our nails sometimes.Must agree last season we would probably have got nothing out the games,the good thing is we will/can get better.