Macron Scottish Junior Cup Third Round

TROON 4

NAIRN ST NINIAN 2

HAT-trick hero Christian Nade was delighted as his three-goal haul helped Troon overcome a stubborn Nairn St Ninian in a Scottish Cup tie at Portland Park on Saturday.

Troon found themselves 1-0 up just after 15 minutes. The lively Nade received the ball on the left hand side 40 yards out. He cut inside on to his right foot and hit a fierce strike which was blocked by the Nairn defender into the path of Ross McCrea at the edge of the penalty area, Who drove past his man and slotted the ball under Fraser Wilkie with a cool left footed shot into the bottom right corner.

Their lead however, was cut short three minutes later when Donald Horsburgh’s cross from the left hand side flew over everyone and into the top right hand corner. Giving the travelling contingent some hope.

Troon regained their goal advantage with eight minutes of the first half remaining. Steven McCreadie’s ball over the top was controlled by Nade in the Nairn penalty area who was then brought down by the covering Horsburgh which left whistler Richard Murray no choice but to point to the spot. Nade stepped up and slotted the ball beyond the keeper into the bottom right corner.

Troon were pegged back for a second time four minutes into the second half. When Matty Grant’s run to the near post wasn’t matched at the corner. Which was swung in from the left and powerfully headed home levelling the tie at 2-2.

Ten minutes later Christian Nade stabbed home Dean Keenan’s knock down from Ben Reilly’s free-kick from the right. The ball came in which Nade met at the back post. His header was met by Keenan’s run at the opposite post who headed it back towards goal for the French hit man to nestle the ball in the net.

Nade completed his treble with 13 minutes to go. Substitute Dylan Pooler was hacked down in the penalty area by Nairn Midfielder Lee Haines. Nade stepped up and fired the ball to the left hand corner which the keeper could only parry into his own net.

Troon boss Jim Kirkwood said; “It wasn’t our greatest performance today. We could’ve buckled when they came back into it at 2-2. So we showed great character in that aspect. Dean Keenan was fantastic today in defence and Christian Nade was brilliant up at the top of the park as well. The result was the most important aspect of today though. Im really happy with the victory. We’ve found a shape in recent weeks with a flat back four that’s worked really well. We’ve got good full backs who can go forward, who have real good engines, but can also defend tightly with the centre halves."

Nade added; “Of course i am happy with the result. I’ve also scored six goals in two games. Something i have never done before. But most importantly we are through to the next round of the cup which was even better. I thought we started the game strong and we got the early goal we needed. We pushed them into making errors which allowed us to score. Okay we conceded to silly goals but overall we performed very well.”T

TROON: Miller; Reilly, McCreadie, Keenan, Strachan, Murphy, Fulton, McCrea, Nade, Maley, Martin. Subs: McKay (Nade), Pooler (Fulton), Love (Martin), Chatham, McInally.

NAIRN ST NINIAN: Wilkie; Grant, Horsburgh, Mason, Hendry, Mitchell, Haines, Chisolm, McLeod, McPhee, Hill. Subs: Calvert, Taylor, Mulligan, Anderson.