Moment of class from James Yates set Luncarty on road to Challenge Cup victory against St Andrews

James Yates netted a superb free-kick to set Luncarty on the road to victory on Saturday - and manager Robbie Holden laughed it was about time.

Yates pinged in his peach of an opener from distance before Ben Scarborough added another after the break to secure the Bleachers a 2-0 Challenge Cup triumph away at St Andrews.

Holden said: “James was getting a bit of stick because it’s his 800th free kick and finally one went in.

“He practices set pieces a lot after training but hasn’t had a great return in the games, but you won’t see many better than the one he scored on Saturday. He does have that quality on the ball and it was a moment of class from him.”

The victory went into the hard-earned category and Holden added: “It wasn’t a classic in the first half.

“That was not surprising with the situation as we had 10 players miss training on Wednesday through injury and holiday.

“It took us time to get to match sharpness and bar Craig (Hepburn) making a great save we could have been behind.

“Second half we were more solid and didn’t really look like conceding. We added a quality second goal to see it through.”

Kinnoull also advanced to the next round of the competition after extra-time joy through at Easterhouse.

Manager Alan Cameron hailed the fitness of his squad, who eventually ran out 4-2 winners thanks to goals from Gregor Donald, Kieran Donald, Fraser Morrison and Patrick Brown.

Cameron said: “The boys showed phenomenal levels of fitness to actually raise the tempo into extra time which ultimately proved too much for our opponents.

“We played well, dominated large parts of the match and created lots of good chances which we were a touch wasteful with. But the early goal in extra time swung the momentum back our way.”