PETERSHILL shrugged off their indifferent league form to pull off the biggest shock among the Macron Scottish Junior Cup 3rd Round ties with a 1-0 weekend victory over high-flying Clydebank.

And the Bankies were not the only big guns to come a cropper on the road as another of the Premiership’s top six, Kilbirnie Ladeside tumbled out away o Gartcairn while last season’s beaten Macron finalists Largs Thistle were on the wrong end of a 3-1 scoreline up at Kirrie Thistle.

A place in the last 32 had looked inevitable for Clydebank ever since the Third Round draw initially paired them against a Peasy side struggling to edge their way clear of the Championship basement but they hadn’t reckoned on the Springburn outfit delivering a sleeves rolled up, energetic, passionate and not least of all ,a very well organised performance to both frustrate their opponents and make a mockery of bookmakers odds writing them off as no-hopers.

Their clearly delighted winning gaffer Martin Lauchlan revealed afterwards, “Week on week, we have been getting so much harder to beat through instilling fitness, a better shape to the team and crucially a sense of togetherness amongst the guys which anyone watching today could not have missed .

“And we’ve not had our problems to seek because there are still as many as ten players unavailable for selection through injury and that list has now increased further after big James Brough limped off after just 20 minutes with a recurrence of a calf muscle pull which had left him touch and go today’s game.

“We gambled on him and it didn’t pay off but didn’t big Scott Anson play out of his skin when we pulled him back to figure as a replacement centre back

“He was outstanding, but truth is we didn’t have a single Petershill failure out there and the guys have served up a level of performance that we will be hoping to build on for the rest of this season. “

Clydebank wasted no time imposing themselves from the first whistle, but all their clever ball-retention plays were failing to create openings against a resolute Peasy backline even though it needed a Jason Elliot headed goalline clearance to keep out a netbound Alan Vezza header from a corner kick.

Brough’s early departure led to big striker Anson dropping deep to allow the introduction of Josh Watt up front but there was no change to the home team’s game plan of getting bodies behind the ball to press, harass and deny space to the Bankies’players .

Indeed, arguably the clearest scoring opportunity of the opening half fell to Peteshill forward Roddy Paterson when a break upfield in 37 minutes saw his blatant foul on visiting defender Gary McMenamin go unchecked and he ran through on goal only to feebly drag his shot well wide with only goalkeeper Marc Waters to beat.

If this near thing was a warning for Clydebank then it went unheeded because Paterson was again to the fore just one minute into the second period when he tenaciously won a tussle for the ball and laid it back to Elliot before running through on the midfielder’s return pass to drill a shot beyond Waters for 1-0 .

The shell-shocked Bankies almost conceded again shortly afterwards when a driven cross into their penalty area deflected off McMenamin and cleared their crossbar by the slightest of margins with Waters beaten all ends up.

Clydebank soon recovered and began pouring forward in waves looking for an equaliser and near things for Nikky Little and Del Hepburn ensued prior to the dangerous Jordan Shelvey having a netbound header denied by a wonderful one-handed tip over save from Peasy No 1 Andy Wilson.

The determination of the visitors to get on equal terms coming up against Petershill’s backs to the wall defending was causing a few niggly exchanges, and matters boiled over in an angry melee involving as many as 16 players which Referee Gary Handvidge resolved with yellow cards fdeemed out to McMenamin and Peasy defender Chris Ketterer.

The one-way traffic continued with Hepburn wasting a decent opportunity by firing high over the crossbar when allowed a sight of goal and Shelvey then scooped an effort wide of the upright with only Wilson to beat however the Peasy keeper took all the plaudits entering the closing stages when he produced a magnificent diving save to keep out a 22 yard Matthew McLean free kick that was arrowing high into his postage stamp.

The final whistle brought loud acclaim for the Peasy players whose beaming smiles were in stark contrast to the utter dejection shown by Clydebank whose manager Gordon Moffat pulled no punches in his after-match summations.

He blasted, “We showed a real lack of urgency and lack of quality out there and it’s totally unacceptable for a club like ours to go out of the Scottish Junior Cup in that manner.

“All credit to Petershill but we just never saw that defeat coming which makes it all the more disappointing however I’m the manager and the guy who sets out how we play so the buck stops with me.

“There can be no excuses as we have enough quality in our squad to be winning in these Cup tie situations and the need now is to make amends by regrouping ahead of a number of big Premiership tests coming up .”

Petershill’s defensive star turn Scott Anson revealed, “I don’t really like having to play at the back because I ‘m guilty of being attracted to the ball too much so I was gutted when big Brough went down.

“Clydebank had us under the cosh for long spells, so it was great to hold out against a team of their abilities particularly as it was only our third clean sheet this season.

“Yes we were lucky …but you need a bit of luck tin the Scottish and we’ll gladly take it and look forward to the 4th Round draw.”

Experienced front man Gary Arbuckle was the matchwinner as Gartcairn triumphed 1-0 against Kilbirnie but George Sewell’s counter proved to be no more than a consolation score for Largs Thistle.

Reigning holders Auchinleck Talbot had Mark Shankland(2) and Graham Wilson on target in a 3-0 defeat of Forfar West End and former Talbot front man Sean McIlroy netted a brace of goals as Beith skelped Whittletts Vics 7-2 while Paul Tierney and Ryan McManus scores paved the way for St Rochs to beat Lesmahagow 2-0 .

Benburb came from behind to beat Dyce 2-1, Thomas Sinclair netted the only goal of the game to help Rossvale to success over Culter and Rob Roy won 2-0 away to Burghead Thistle through goals from Michael Tuohy and Grant Brennan.