United win spot kicks

Oct 30 2008 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

LOCHEE Harp paid the penalty this weekend as Blackburn progressed to the Scottish Cup Second Round following a marathon penalty shootout.

The two sides had drawn 1-1 in Blackburn last week and they ground out the same scoreline in Tayside on Saturday.

So the prize of a place in the next round of the Scottish Cup would go to the victors in the lottery of spot kicks.

And it was Blackburn’s fans who were smiling at the end after edging out the hosts 8-7 to tee up a second-round clash with conquerors of West Calder, Inverness City.

In the game itself it was Harp who took the lead when Gareth Dailly, cousin of Scotland and Rangers man Christian Dailly, scored a superb goal after cutting in from the left.

His curling inswinger completely deceived keeper Francis Carlin to land in the net.

But things began to unravel for Harp when they lost keeper Mark Fotheringham whose place was taken by his brother, central defender Steve Fotheringham.

Blackburn kept plugging away but didn’t make the breakthrough until the second half.

A sustained period of pressure paid off with just 10 minutes left to play when Peter Lynch was hauled down for a penalty.

Lee Docherty showed no nerves as he stepped up and slammed the ball into the net for the equaliser to force the game to penalties.

And what a shootout it became. A marathon started with neither side getting the upper hand and several great saves from both keepers kept each set of fans on tenterhooks.

Then with both sets of players now into their second round of kicks after a staggering 24 efforts, Blackburn won it.

Keeper Francis Carlin had saved number 23 leaving Alan Brown to try and win the game for Blackburn.

As before with Docherty, he showed no nerves to step up and slam the ball into the net and take Blackburn into the next stage.