POLLOK BARE THEIR DEFENSIVE TEETH

RYAN McGREGOR SCORED POLLOK OPENER

Team boss Stewart Maxwell lavished praise on the character shown by his Pollok players in “shutting up shop” to secure a place in the South Challenge Cup last 16 with a 2-0 victory over Linlithgow Rose.

Any lingering recollections of last weekend’s dismal defensive display in shipping four goals at home to Beith were all but forgotten about as a determined Callum Gow & co held firm to record a first clean sheet in six starts and get the better of  Lowland League opponents Rose through goals from Ryan McGregor and Jay Nelson.

The latter named’s injury time clincher saw him understandably swamped by a sea of wildly celebrating and no doubt relieved team mates  because up to that point a young Linlithgow side had looked likely to salvage something from the game after totally dominating the second 45 minutes.

But their lack of a cutting edge along with a hat trick of terrific Jordan Longmuir saves in tandem with the `give nothing away` approach adopted by the guys in front of him ensured this was Pollok’s day.