Bellshill Athletic 3-0 Lanark United: Lanark miss chance to go top of league

Savarese shot against the post for Bellshill early on before Lanark’s Josh Gracie linked well with Ian Watt down the right before Watt hit a shot that brought out a good save from the home keeper.

The deadlock was broken on the half hour mark when Bellshill broke down the left and a decent cross found Savarese who put the home side 1-0 up.

Lanark’s only reply before half-time came when PJ O’Donnell picked up the ball in the middle of the park before beating his marker and firing in a shot that went just wide of the post.

The second half was a slow starter for both sides and only came to life in the 66th minute when Bellshill’s Nichol picked up a loose ball 30 yards out and hit a superb shot high in to the net to make it 2-0 to the home side.

Lanark had a chance to reduce the deficit in the 77th minute when a free-kick from O’Donnell produced a panic in the home defence with the loose ball falling for Shug Kerr but his effort flew well over the Bellshill bar.

Then a couple of minutes later Cammy Lawson hit a shot from 25 yards that struck the post before going out for a goal kick.

This was proving to be Lanark’s best spell of the match and they won a corner in the 80th minute but when it came in Mark Haddow saw his header go well over the bar as another chance was lost.

The last action saw Bellshill seal it when poor defending from Lanark allowed a ball to be crossed from the right and Stewart rounded off the scoring at 3-0 to the home side.

Lanark: McGraw, Gracie, Haddow, Lawson, Boal, Watt, Fraser, O’Donnell, Lindsay, Martin, Kerr.

United are in Macron Scottish Junior Cup second round action at Gartcairn this Saturday, kick-off 2.30pm.