Threave Rovers keep promotion hopes alive with win over Glasgow United

Threave Rovers kept their promotion hopes alive with a narrow win over Glasgow United on Saturday.

Tam Coles scored the only goal at Meadow Park early on as the Castle Douglas side took three points against a team featuring former Scotland and Dundee United striker David Goodwillie.

Caretaker Paul McGinley said: “The result was what we wanted, the performance wasn’t spectacular but the pitch didn’t allow that.

“It was quite bumpy and dry and didn’t allow either team to control the game.

“At 1-0 we were still creating and missing chances so we didn’t quite put the game to bed. It gave them a wee sense of hope in the second half, but I think over the piece we were the better team.
“We kept Goodwillie quiet, which was the primary objective to stop them, but it was very pleasing.”

Threave may have won 1-0 but the victory could have been more convincing as they missed a penalty and also hit the woodwork.

McGinley added: “We created good openings – I wouldn’t say it was through fluent play but we were quite direct and aggressive which was good.

“It’s just the finishing touches which have let us down a wee bit but we still got three points.

“It’s been the story of our season, we’ve been well on top of most teams, controlled games and look solid. Since we lost the front line we built over Christmas, it’s been the same in terms of controlling games but the ball striking in the final third is missing a wee bit.”

Saturday’s win left Threave fourth in the West of Scotland League Third division with four games to go.

Vale of Leven, who are two points ahead, have just three games left.

Finnart in fifth have the same number of points as Threave but just two games to go.

And Lesmahagow are a further point back but still have six games remaining.

A packed end to the season saw Threave go to leaders Lanark United.

Threave were 3-2 up before the game was abandoned after a Lanark player suffered a bad injury.

was due to see Threave go to league leaders Lanark United last night.

On Saturday they go to Finnart before a Dumfries and Galloway derby against Kello Rovers at Meadow Park on Wednesday night.

McGinley said: We’ve just got to try to win all our games and see where it takes us – and even then that might not be enough.

“What we thought a month ago was four teams would be vying for the three places.

“I think there’s five if you count Vale of Leven but their games are running out rapidly.

“It’ll come down to ourselves and Lesmahagow for that third spot.

“We’ll see how the squad is after Wednesday but you’d like to think we can get a bit of consistency and then after that look at juggling it a wee bit.

“We’ve a game Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday next week again.

“It’s like everybody else at this stage of the season, squads are stretched to the full.”