Farmers Boys In Early Harvest

After two away matches at Shettleston and Vale of Leven which only yielded a point, Bens were keen to get back to winning ways in their home match with Neilston today. The two sides faced each other in a meaningless Sectional League Cup match earlier in the season where Neilston emerged victorious.
And so it proved again today.
The visitors made short work of the job this afternoon and come half-time the points were good as gone to the red corner.
The opener came in the eleventh minute. The Neilston midfield worked their way across to the right hand side and despite their midfielder 'air kicking' his initial cross attempt, he recovered to nutmeg the first Bens defender and force a corner with a deflection off the second. The corner was played to the front post, where Lavery's attempted clearance sent it spinning backwards across goal and the Neilston striker jabbed it home from close in.
Neilston again had the ball in the net on 15 minutes but a late whistle pulled play back for offside.
The second came on the half hour mark when the Neilston centre steamed past the Bens defenders on the left side and squared to his fellow striker; he had time to turn and shot past Quinn with the home defence too slow to react.
On 40 minutes, Neilston again made it all look easy as they snatched their third with a midfield burst into the right side of the box and a dangerous sweep onto the six yard line where their centre despatched the ball firmly behind Quinn.
Bens brought on Gillan for Lavery at half time and rejigged their defence for the second period.
McKenna forced the Neilston keeper into a save from his volley just after the break and Shane Jackson had his effort saved by the keeper's legs after Waddell had expertly released him into the box but the defensive reshuffle was more about stemming the tide than producing a fightback.
A weak performance all round by Bens today with their haphazard defending, lack of bite in midfield and poor penetration upfront giving them plenty to think about before the visit of Cambuslang Rangers next week- another side who have already left Tinto this season with a cup victory.

BENBURB: Quinn, C Jackson, Lavery, McInnes, Wright, Carroll, Gibson, S Jackson, McKenna, Waddell, Mackenzie.