East Kilbride youth keeper being Lowland Cup hero on debut a fitting way for me to leave, says Martin Fellowes

Interim boss Martin Fellowes felt East Kilbride academy goalkeeper Mateusz Miller being the penalty shootout hero in their Lowland League Cup final win over Bo’ness United was a fitting way for him to end almost a decade with his hometown club.

Fellowes, who was EK’s under-20s coach before taking the first team reins in March, handed 19-year-old Miller his debut in Sunday’s final in Berwick. And it proved to be a masterstroke as the Kilby keeper made THREE huge saves in the shootout to ensure the club defended their crown, after the game had finished 2-2 during 90 minutes.

Kilby – who have already appointed Mick Kennedy as their boss for next season – blew a 2-0 lead after two goals in the opening 20 minutes from Danny McManus and Kyle Connell were cancelled out by Bo’ness in the second half.

The game went straight to penalties and EK took the trophy with a 5-4 success after Dylan MacDonald, Alan Lithgow, Jamie Docherty, Ronan Hughes and Gary Miller all netted.

Ben Hughes and BJ Coll missed their spot-kicks, but Mateusz bailed them out with some big saves.

And delighted Fellowes, who started out as the club's kitman before earning his coaching badges, said: “I couldn’t have picked a better way to finish up.

“You don’t plan these things, but it is amazing that with Mateusz being the hero – saving the penalty on his debut, after coming up from the youth team that I’ve been involved with – it is a really fitting way for me to go.

“When I think of East Kilbride, I will always think of working with young players and spending so much time trying to put young players in front of the first team manager and trying to get them in that squad.

“The fact I’ve been able to give two of them a debut [Rico De Marco played against