Junior Cup Linlithgow into last four after 7-0 victory

Tommy Coyne has scored 13 goals in this season's Junior Cup

Manager Todd Lumsden was delighted with the manner in which they won. “A clean sheet, plenty of goals and no mistakes, and a semi-final spot into the bargain. That makes me a happy man. We didn’t start the game well but after Tommy opened the scoring we relaxed and as we saw in the second half we routed them with five goals. We didn’t have a lot of players to pick from because of injuries but the players who came in did a great job in staking a claim for a semi-final spot. As for the semi draw, we’ll take whatever is thrown at us if we continue to play like today.”

Gartcairn should have opened the scoring twice in the opening 20 minutes but squandered both. Coyne showed them how to do it though in the 19th minute after taking a great ball from Kevin Kelbie. It was Kelbie himself in the 25th minute who doubled Linlithgow’s lead, a lead they took to the break.

Last week Rose surrendered a two-goal lead after half-time but a severe talking to from the Lumsden paid dividends when Robbie McNab fired home a superb effort for their third. Callum Brady headed an own goal for Rose’s fourth with substitute Lewis Small adding a fifth. Then, with five minutes remaining, Coyne completed his double before Harvey Swan slammed the ball home to complete the rout.

Linlithgow captain Colin Leiper said: “It was good to win and put to bed the claim that we can’t keep a lead. A clean sheet is a bonus and goals coming from lots of different players. We didn’t have a happy start to the game and were lucky not to be behind. It was a good professional job we did today and that’s what keeps our supporters happy.”

Linlithgow: Hill. Thom, Donaldson, Beaumont, McKenzie, Leiper, Kelly, McNab, Coyne, Kelbie, Swann. Subs: Small, Gray, Hislop, Barnard.

Gartcairn: Nugent, Brady, Eadie, Canning, Ross, McAvoy, Henderson, Moore, Love, O’Donnell, Carmichael. Subs: Tait, Scott, Pettigrew, Whitelaw, Regan.