SCOTTISH JUNIOR CUP 3RD ROUND

DUNDEE VIOLET 0 GLENAFTON ATHLETIC 2

GLENAFTON progressed to the fourth round of the Scottish Cup after a hard fought win away to Dundee Violet.

The visitors enjoyed long periods of possession with Joe Andrew and Mick McCann going close early before McCann then had a goal chalked off for offside.

The home side were reduced to ten men on 19 minutes after the referee considered striker Kevin Scott’s challenge on Kyle McAusland worthy of a red card.

Glens continued to press and when defender Kit Bremner barged Mick McCann off the ball in the box the referee instantly pointed to the spot and the Glens’ striker dusted himself down before slamming the penalty past keeper Gary Thaine to put the visitors ahead on 28 minutes.

Five minutes later Andrew’s effort whizzed inches over the bar and Thaine saved well from Ally Park after the Glens midfielder powered his way into the box. Violet, having lost their lone front man, were struggling to seriously threaten the Glens goal. However, in the last action of the half Dale Hart engineered their best chance of the half after giving a couple of defenders the slip and drilling a low angled shot that keeper Brian McGarrity and McAusland combined to clear.

The second half continued in a similar vein to the first with the Glens controlling the play and patiently trying to find an opening against the ten dogged Dundonians that were still very much in the game.

On the hour mark Thaine saved a close-range header from McCann and soon after Glens earned another corner-kick. Ryan Borris’s kick from the right was cleared at the near post before the midfielder recovered the ball and returned it to the back post where it was cleared by Ryan Digman, sending the ball high into the air. Darren McGill at the corner of the box met the ball first time on the drop and thundered a shot that flew over the heads of a clutch of players from both sides including that of keeper Thaine, who could only look on as ball battered off the inside of the post and into the net to put Glens two up on 67 minutes.

Two minutes later and defender Ben Middleton did enough to prevent Borris from winning the ball at the back post as the Glens pressed for a third.

On 75 minutes the home side came close to halving the deficit after substitute George Duncan broke into the box and drilled a low powerful drive that pulled off a fine save from the legs of keeper McGarrity.

Back up the park and Thaine matched his counterpart after Andrew turned two defenders in the six yard box before the keeper’s legs blocked his shot at goal and then kept his cool to push McCann’s effort to bury the rebound off the line. The keeper then denied McCann twice more as he was well placed to deal with the striker’s headers from deep in the box.

Violet finished with a brief flurry forcing McGarrity to block a shot from Digman and then push Duncan’s effort past the post before the Glens cleared the corner kick and progressed to the 4th round.