Halkirk ‘embarrassed’ by Steven Cup semi-final first leg drubbing
Division Two leaders Keiss already have one foot in the final after a resounding 4-0 first leg win in the Steven Cup semi-final at Halkirk on Friday.
But player-boss Bradley Thomson is acutely aware of the threat Halkirk possess, and is taking nothing for granted despite his side’s four goal advantage.
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“Going into the semi-final, we have a massive lead, but Halkirk are a good enough team to come back from that.
“They have shown in the previous round after beating Swifts 3-0 that they have got the ability to go and beat a team by three or four goals, so the game is definitely not over. It is a home game though, for us, which helps.
“In recent games we have only had 12 or 13 players available, which obviously is not ideal, but we have managed to negotiate our way through those games with bare bones. We’ll be back to full strength for tonight.
“The Steven Cup is a trophy that’s eluded us for a few years now, so it would be great to reach the final.”
Keiss took the lead through player-boss Thomson with a shot from outside the box in an evenly contested first half.
It took until just over the hour mark for the visitors to double their advantage, netting through Carter Mackay on 62 minutes.
A Tony Miller double then rocked Halkirk, as the striker rounded the keeper after receiving a through ball from Steven Budge, before netting again with a chipped effort.
Halkirk co-manager Michael Bremner said overturning the result will be a “tough ask” for his side.
“It was a bit of an embarrassing result for us really. We’d gone in quite confident after beating Swifts and had been playing really well in the games before that.
“To be honest, despite the score line, we played some really good stuff as well. We did everything really well up until the last third, but just didn’t look like scoring. Keiss did a number on us and scored four really good goals.
“Going into the second leg, we’d have liked it to be a bit closer, but we’ll go over there and look for a positive result, try to get a couple of goals early doors.
“Stranger things have happened, we’ll give it a go and see what happens. It’s going to be a tough ask.”
Keiss host Halkirk tonight in the second leg at Bayview Park with a 7pm kick off.