CUP HERO KEEPER RETURNS TO LIE

Published 4 Nov 2009 15:57 0 Comments

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FORMER Lie goalkeeper Sandy McLean will make a welcome return to his old club this weekend as his Largs Thistle side make the trip to Dunterlie.

McLean was a well-loved keeper at Arthurlie in the mid 90s and capped his time at the club by helping lift the Scottish Cup in 1998.

On his last visit to Dunterlie Sandy picked up The John Murphy man-of-the-match award at the recent legends game and the former stopper feels he has nothing but fond memories from his time in Barrhead.

He said: "I look back at my time at Arthurlie with great affection, not only that I feel that the fans thought of me as one of their own which means a lot to me personally.

"I am looking forward to seeing many old friends this Saturday, none more so than current Arthurlie assistant, Jimmy McQuade, who I learned so much from in my time at the club as a player.

"When I started off in management Jimmy was always available on the other end of the phone to offer advice, he is one of life's true gents and someone I have a huge amount of admiration for.

"That said, come Saturday all I will be focusing on is gaining three points for Largs, after all, Jimmy would be really disappointed in me if I didn't do everything possible to ruin his day."

The Lie will be going into the vital league clash with Largs in high spirits after they cruised past Newburgh in the Emirates Junior Cup.

The visitors dominated early on with Steve Bonar, Sean Winter and Craig Malcolm all coming close in the opening exchanges.

Moments before the interval the home side almost took a shock lead from their only clear-cut chance of the match.

A long ball from Darren Cassells found Darren McLeod in space down the left flank but with only keeper Neil Parry blocking his effort on goal the young forward screwed his shot wide of goal.

Arthurlie were beginning to get frustrated as they couldn't break down the Newburgh defence despite dominating long spells of the match.

But they grew in confidence after the break and also found their passing game with more rhythm and began to exert real pressure on the home defence.

An Arthurlie goal looked inevitable and it arrived on 51 minutes when centre-back Frank McKeown was on hand to tap home Joe Andrew's low cross at the near post.

Newburgh players were reeling after that blow and on the hour-mark Andrew took advantage of some sloppy defending and burst into the box before slotting past the Newburgh keeper.

Andrew was unlucky not to doubled his goals tally shortly after scoring his first when he fired in a vicious effort on goal - only to see it crash off the crossbar.

Arthurlie sub John Bradford then put the tie beyond doubt in the dying minutes with a bullet header from a corner.

Kick-off this Saturday at Dunterlie is set for 2pm.

By Robert Burns

This article appeared in Barrhead News 04 Nov 09

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