East Kilbride through to next round despite a second half scare at Mckenna Park

Cup holders East Kilbride progress to the next round of The Soccer Shop South Challenge Cup after late strikes from Lewis Kidd and Craig Malcolm seal a 3-1 win in an entertaining encounter at Mckenna Park.

It was a lively opening phase of play, with East Kilbride creating the better chances of both sides. They nearly took the lead after 15 minutes when Sean Winter found space on the right-hand side, but his shot fired off the post.

East Kilbride controlled the play but were unable to find the target and St Anthony’s nearly took advantage through a poor defensive error. East Kilbride lost the ball deep in their own half which allowed Rui Carballo free in the box, but the youngster fired his strike well over the bar from close range.

The deadlock was broken on the half hour mark; St Anthony’s were caught out by a

through ball that left Darren Smith one on one and his audacious chip put the away side in

the lead before half time.

Moving into the second half, St Anthony’s controlled the ball with East Kilbride unable to progress out their half. Goalkeeper Jacob Kean gifted the home side an equaliser minutes later; a deep cross slipped through his gloves and Njabulo Ndlovu couldn’t miss from close range.

East Kilbride were stunned a minute later, conceding a penalty after a dubious refereeing decision. However, goalkeeper Jacob Kean redeemed himself after his earlier mistake by brilliantly saving Evariste Bembo’s effort from twelve yards.

St Anthony’s continued to dominate and nearly took the lead through Graeme Crawford’s free kick, but Jacob Kean got down low to make the save.

With the teams locked at 1-1 and extra time approaching, Lewis Kidd found space and a perfectly weighted pass from Craig Malcolm allowed him to race through and slot his strike past the onrushing goalkeeper to put the Kilby 2-1 up.

Minutes before full time, East Kilbride sealed the game with a third. A whipped in corner by debutant Olly McDonald fell kindly to Craig Malcolm who found the bottom left corner to seal East Kilbride’s place in the next round of the cup.

East Kilbride will be relieved to have secured a win after an impressive performance by hosts St Anthony’s. Next up for the Kilby is a midweek tie with the Caledonian Braves while St Anthony’s are at home to Thorniewood United.

East Kilbride assistant manager Chris Aitken spoke exclusively to us after full time.

“It was always going to be the game we expected, but the most important thing for us was to get into the next round. I wouldn’t say it was a good ninety minutes work, but we’ve done what we had to do, and we got there in the end.”

“We need to work on trying to put teams to bed early, creating chance after chance but for some reason we’re not taking them but with hard work at training hopefully these chances will get taken and give us a bit of breathing space at the side.”