Cup success for Braves as they see off Shotts

Caledonian Braves managed to see off Shotts Bon Accord 3-1 in the South Challenge Cup after a strong performance from the home side.

It was a glorious sunny day at Alliance Park for the eagerly anticipated cup tie between Caledonian Braves and Shotts Bon Accord. Coming into the game both sides were on a good run of form. The away side Shotts sat 1st in their respective league, with Caledonian Braves unbeaten in their last few games.

The away side started off brightly with a shot from the Shotts attacking midfielder, however. The chance for the away side caused no problems for the Caledonian Brave defence.

The home side started to settle into the game after the Braves won a corner via a marauding Zac Butterworth run. Rhys Armstrong floated the ball into the box from the corner, unfortunately for the home side, his effort went sailing across the box for a Shotts throw in on the other side.

Shortly after another chance for the Braves came when Zac Butterworth burst through on goal after a superb ball from Ross Lindsay, sadly for the winger, his shot was tipped just wide for another corner for the home side.  

Midway through the first half Cole Starrs done fantastically well to create room and get a shot away and he almost broke the deadlock. Sadly for the youngster his chance narrowly went rolling wide.

The game changed in the 25th minute when the Shotts number 6 received a straight red after a very high tackle on the Caledonian Braves captain, Ross Lindsay. Thankfully, Ross came out of the challenge unharmed, and Shott’s would go down to ten men for the remainder of the match.

Shortly after the sending off It was Luke Mains turn to see a shot go wide, after lovely attacking football against the ten men Shotts side.

After several missed chances and dominating the first half off football, the home side finally scored. Zac Butterworth played a ball into the path of Marc Kelly who calmly slotted it home to break the deadlock and make it 1-0 to the Braves.

Soon after Butterworth and Kelly linked up again when Butterworth found himself being brought down in the box. The ref pointed to the spot, and It was Marc Kelly who would have the chance to strike home a second for Caley Braves. Up stepped Kelly who confidently smashed it home to make it 2-0 to the home side before the half time interval.

The second half started off with more of the same dominance from the home side as they looked to keep the ball and continue pressing the ten men away side.

However, against the run of play the away side broke through after a quick throw in was taken, eventually a into the box found the head of the Shotts centre half who nodded in the cross to make it 2-1.

During the latter stages of the game a cross was fired into the box toward Jack McDowall who headed it off the crossbar, the ball fell to the feat of Lewis McLear who converted the rebound to make it 3-1 to the home side.

Overall Caledonian Braves will be delighted with the victory against a strong Shotts outfit that were never allowed to get going, even before the red card. Up next for Ricky Waddell’s men is a home tie in the Scottish Cup against Stirling University.