Cambuslang Rangers 2 Largs Thistle 2

Largs Thistle and Cambuslang had to settle for a share of the spoils after a hard fought encounter full of drama and controversy.

A bad injury to Largs midfielder Dario Nimmo which only merited a yellow card was the big talking point of this West of Scotland Premiership encounter.

There was anger at some hefty challenges going in while Largs skipper Stuart Faulds was cautioned for a minor incident.

The game had been in some doubt late morning but the arrival of some sunshine and even Thistle manager Stuart Davidson taking up a pitchfork all helped in getting the match underway at 1.30pm.

New signing John Tennant was slotted straight into defence while Sean McLeod returned to the starting line-up as wing back.

Cambuslang, who were smarting from a 7-0 reversal to Beith, were looking for a reaction from their players, and they started the match in fine fettle on a heavy surface which was very muddy in places.

On 19 minutes, the Somervell Park side had their first opportunity as a header was cleared off the line by Stuart Faulds.

Cambuslang re-worked the move and crossed the ball into the box with a diving header somehow going over the bar when it should have been in the back of the net.

And on 24 minutes, Cambuslang were really kicking themselves as a shot from the edge of the area was repelled by Largs keeper Jamie McGowan into the path of an opposing striker with the goal at his mercy.

Tennant seemingly came out of nowhere with a heroic block to boot the ball to safety as Largs escaped.

On 27 minutes, Nimmo was victim of a late challenge and was sent flying and despite calls for a red card the referee only showed yellow as the recent signing had to be carried off the field.

 

Laurie McMaster entered the field of play as substitute as McLeod moved up the wing and Thistle went on to dominate the rest of the half.

McMaster had the first opportunity from a short corner but launched the ball over the bar, and then Faulds dangerous cross was held by the keeper at the second time of asking as Simon McBryde was lurking.

McBryde had a brilliant opportunity to open the scoring for Largs after the ball was laid on a plate for him from ten yards but he skied over,

And the Thistle midfielder nearly made up for it after turning a defender to launch a sidefooted angled volley from the right which just flashed past the left post.

And on the verge of half-time, Lewis Davidson's corner to the far post was turned home by an unfortunate Cambuslang defender to put Largs 1-0 up.

After a dry first half, the rain clouds burst open in the second half as Thistle were still looking good with Scott Lewis blasting a good opportunity over the bar.

Thistle suffered another bodyblow with McLeod having to come off the pitch with a re-occurrence of a hamstring injury, to be replaced by Alan Frizzell.

Cambuslang were starting to have some dangerous moves and found the equaliser on 75 minutes as one of their forwards cut in from the right wing and delivered a bullet of a strike into the postage stamp corner. 

However, Largs took the wind out of their sails by quickly moving 2-1 up after David Ramsay headed home from Liam Devine's cross from the right on 80 minutes.

The pivotal moment in this match came in the 85th minute as Ramsay managed to run clear and got past the keeper on the edge of the area only to be blocked by a defender.

Cambuslang managed to successfully cleared leading to a Jamie McGowan clearance at the other end, but the ball was shuttled down the left wing by Cambuslang and across goal and fired home at the far post in a goalmouth scramble.

The home side had a late opportunity which was thankfully cleared as the full-time whistle signalled a point apiece but Thistle were still smarting as they felt Cambuslang should have been reduced to ten men midway through the first half.

THISTLE: McGowan, McLeod, Devine, Tennant, McCreath, Faulds, Nimmo, McBryde, Ramsay, Lewis, Davidson. Subs: Frizzell, McMaster, Thomson, Walker (GK).