Sports Editor
A last-minute overhead kick from Lewis Dibble gave Glasgow Twos a 2-1 derby win over Glasgow Threes at Garscube.
The Twos opened the scoring mid-way through the first half via Diego Taberna before Alex Ewing equalised shortly after. Chances of a sure victory seemed to disappear for both sides but Dibble provided a moment of magic to settle the result.
In the first round of fixtures, Glasgow Twos lost to Strathclyde Twos while Glasgow Threes defeated Edinburgh Napier Twos.
The Twos started the game like a team hell-bent on preventing their counterparts from further widening the points gap. Alistair Keith floated a ball over the top and Harry Cox’s cross was met at the back post by Luka Popovic, who forced Threes’ goalkeeper Greig McClay into a save.
The Threes, struggling to break out from their half, were resolute under extreme pressure. Isaac Thomson teed up Chris Warrillow 25 yards from goal but the midfielder’s shot flew wide of McClay’s goal.
Harry Cox superbly flicked-on Taberna’s ball forward, allowing Popovic to try his luck again at the back post but he failed to hit the target from a tight angle.
The inevitable arrived in the 24th minute. The Twos’ Isaac Thomson saw his corner evade everyone and Ally Blair picked up possession to send in an inviting cross, from which centre back Taberna nodded his side ahead. Taberna’s goal seemed to shock the trailing side into life. A Fraser Law free-kick from halfway fell to Maro Santo Gutierrez and the striker produced an instinctive snap-shot which flew wide.
Six minutes after falling behind, the Threes levelled. Nachika showed good feet inside the box and hung up a cross perfectly for Alex Ewing to finish his run from midfield with a well-placed header.The Threes continued to build on their momentum. Reid Candlish raced onto Law’s perfectly-weighted ball down the right but Twos goalkeeper Yo raced off his line to clear the danger.
On the stroke of half-time, Taberna passed up a great opportunity to score his second of the game when he headed Thomson’s inviting left-wing cross wide of goal. With Bastien Saint-Paul dictating midfield for the Threes, they began to fashion more chances. Thomson played a defence-splitting pass, allowing Popovic, who had made a run from deep inside his half, to cross for Dibble. The frontman could only direct his shot into the hands of McClay.
Warrillow looked sure to give the Twos the lead when he turned inside the box but a last-ditch block kept the score level. In the 70th minute, the Threes almost went in front when Fred Brown capitalised on the ponderous play on the halfway line to race through on goal. Having taken the ball past the goalkeeper, Brown saw his shot cleared off the line by Ally Blair’s heroic intervention.
With two minutes to go, the Twos snatched the winner. Following a corner, the ball bounced around the box like a game of pinball and Dibble, the cool head amidst the chaos, produced a fantastic overhead kick to secure the points.
Twos manager Jonathan Quinn was pleased that his side came out on top. “It was a great performance from both teams,” he said. “There was no gulf in class between the sides; it was a very even match, very well-contested. I’m not sure whether anybody would have been disappointed with a draw but obviously, we’re ecstatic that we got the win.
“Some of the boys know each other from different teams and they all had trials together so they’ve already played each other, in essence. Fixtures like this are always good and we’ll be playing them again before December.”
Quinn felt that Bastien Saint-Paul was the man of the match. He said: “He was fantastic in the middle of the park. He covered every blade of grass, tackled every player and passed to every player.”
Reflecting on his side’s dramatic winner, Quinn said: “Lewis Dibble was pretty much our only recognised striker in the team today. He did a lot of hard work, a lot of thankless work. For him to score a bicycle kick to win the game was quite brilliant.”
