BOTH Lasswade High School and Knightswood Secondary, from Glasgow, had  good support for the semi-final of the Scottish Schools FA’s Under-16 Shield, to add to the history and tradition of Newtown Park, home of Bo’ness United FC, writes CHARLES OWEN.

Lasswade, playing into the wind in the first half created most of the play and, after prolonged pressure an unfortunate error by Knightswood goalie, Craig Abercromby, resulted in a goalmouth scramble in which Mark Cherrie was able to bundle the ball over the line to give Lasswade a 1-0 lead. Knightswood immediately picked themselves up, though, and managed to cut the Lasswade defence open, leaving Ricky Ramsay to make a last-gasp tackle on Knightswood’s imposing striker Cameron Gallagher.

On 31 minutes Lasswade put the ball in the net again but the goal was adjudged offside and so the teams went in at half-time with the score at 1-0.

At the start of the second half, Nathan Moncrieff continued to make life difficult down Knightswood’s left flank and caused left-back Jordan Harvey a great many problems. Despite Cameron Gallagher going close to an equaliser with a free header from a corner on 49mins,  the introduction of Lasswade substitute Gary MacCormack proved to be a pivotal moment. 

Within two minutes of coming on,  MacCormack was able to receive a ball with his back to goal and turn to lift it into the net from 18 yards. With Knightswood still recovering the same player sealed the result with a tightly angled shot drilled past the goalkeeper at his far post. Further pressure from Lasswade brought a fine save from Abercromby in the Knightswood goal, and despite valiant efforts by Knightswood, with 20 minutes left to play Lasswade had the game well under control.

The game ended with a 3-0 win and congratulations must go to both teams for each playing their part in a good-spirited and disciplined game in which not a single card was shown by the referee. Lasswade will now play Auchinleck Academy (Ayrshire) in the final, at a venue and date to be decided by the Scottish Schools’ FA.