ARTHURLIE coach Craig Palmer hailed an “almost faultless” performance from the Barrhead team as they moved into round four of the South Challenge Cup with a win over Whitletts Victoria on Saturday.

Palmer watched his troops pick up a 2-1 victory at Dam Park, thanks to goals from Michael MacNeil and Gary Carroll, despite having to play the last half-hour with 10 men after Nad Zeb was shown a red card.

MacNeil scored the opener early on when he got the final touch to force the ball over the line following a scramble after Dale Simeon’s corner.

The Dunterlie Park side made it 2-0 after 36 minutes as Carroll netted from the penalty spot after Tam McGaughey was brought down.

However, the Vics pulled one back through Jordan Boyd on the stroke of half-time.

The visitors started the second half well but were reduced to 10 men after an hour when Zeb was shown a second yellow card.

There was to be no more scoring, despite chances at both ends as Jason Walker fired over for Whitletts and Kevin McFarlane’s header came off the crossbar for the visitors.

Arthurlie have enjoyed a number of comfortable victories this season but Palmer was delighted to see the team find another way to win on Saturday.

He told Barrhead Sport: “The boys’ attitude is always good but, even in the warm-up, everything about the day went well.

“It showed with the way we played in the first half. We totally dominated and the goalie hasn’t had to make a save until we lose a silly goal with the last kick of the first half. We were almost faultless.

“The goal took a wee shine off what the boys had done but I told them at half-time that, apart from the goal, I had absolutely nothing to say that they had done wrong.

“The second half performance, even after we went to ten men, was great. I think we should have scored four or five because we were well worth it.”

Arthurlie travel to MTC Park to take on Gartcairn in the Scottish Junior Cup this weekend and Palmer is expecting an entertaining contest.

He added: “It’s a game between two teams that score goals and there’s a place in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup at stake, so I’m pretty sure both sets of players will be up for it.”

Kick-off on Saturday is at 1.30pm.