Macron Scottish Junior Cup Second Round

TROON FC 5

LOCHEE HARP 1

By Richard Henderson

TROON secured a smooth passage into the third round draw on Tuesday, October 9 with a comfortable victory over Dundee side Lochee Harp.

The home side started very strongly and came very close after only five minutes when a Ross McCrea pass fed Ben Reilly down the right flank and his driving run ended with a touch to Nade and his touch trickled past the post with the keeper well beaten.

Harp scrapped their way back into the game and spells of possession without troubling ScoJo, but Jamie Martin was next up with a rasping drive which Brown did well to parry to safety. An Allan free-kick for Harp came back off the upright in 31 minutes to give Troon a real scare, before Dylan Pooler finally broke the deadlock. A lovely driving run from McCrea found the ex-Talbot man who beat his nan to coolly slip under the keeper.

The Seasiders re-emerged with a sense of determination after the interval, and immediately set about obtaining the win. McCrea was dominating proceedings by this point and he fed Martin, who beat the offside trap and smashed it past Brown to double the lead.

A minute later, Evan Maley killed the contest as he collected a loose ball to spin and strike it high into the net from the edge of the box and you could see the fight drain from the visitors.

Former Dundee forward Christian Nade made it four shortly afterwards and it was clear the three goals in 8 minutes had knocked the stuffing out of Harp, as Kirkwood rang the changes with Saturday's clash with Largs in mind.

A quiet spell was almost broken back into life again as Jack Sherrie’s powerful header was saved by the keeper, and then ScoJo was called into action to touch a free-kick past the post. Sub Dan McKay rounded the keeper to make it five on 79 minutes, but it was the travelling side who completed the scoring with a good breakaway after intercepting a Troon attack with nine minutes left.

After an encouraging opening half from the visitors, a strong second half from the hosts sees them in the hat for the next round

TROON: Johnstone; Reilly, Sherrie, Keenan, Strachan (Clark 59) Murphy (Chatham 61) Pooler, McCrea, Nade (McKay 72) Maley, Martin.

Subs not used: Fulton, McCreadie

LOCHEE HARP: Brown; Irvine, McCabe, Roddy Smart (Lewis Young 14) Fyfe, Lloyd Young, Allan (McKillen 62) Conway, McDonald, McLaughlin. Sub not used: M. Irvine, Millar, Mullen