Shotts gaffer John McKeown lavished praise on goalkeeper Sandy Thomson after he saved three penalties and scored one in a penalty shootout win over St Roch’s in the Junior Cup.

The Bonny squeezed into round three with a 6-5 shootout success after the game had ended goalless over 90 minutes.

While regular play might not have delivered on drama, the spot-kicks certainly did as Thomson produced some outstanding heroics to deny the Candy three times and net a composed penalty of his own.

McKeown insists he was confident his player would come up with the good and revealed the shot-stopper has his sights set on becoming the club’s regular penalty taker.

He said: “Sandy is some boy and he has been a great signing. I was really confident going into the penalties because we have Sandy.

“I just knew he would produce some saves and he did that. He made tremendous saves and then scored his as well.

“He has been telling me as soon as our regular penalty taker Ally Martin misses one, he’ll be the next penalty taker so he really had to back that up on Saturday – and he did.

“He took penalties for his previous clubs and scored a lot of penalties when he was at Wishaw. He is a really good outfield player as well as a goalkeeper, he’s just a maniac so he’s better being kept in his goal!

“He is a great character to have around the place. At half-time he knew we were off it and he did my team talk for me, he wasn’t happy and letting people it wasn’t good enough so fair play to him.

“It is a lottery when it goes to penalties and it is a hard way to lose any game. It was a good old fashioned cup tie and I’m just glad we got through. Sometimes you just have to find a way and the boys did it again because last year we beat Beith and Arthurlie on penalties, so it is good they have that habit.”

The match had been rescheduled from a postponement last month and Shotts go straight into third round action this Saturday when they make the trip to Aberdeenshire to face Rothie Rovers, kick-off 2pm.

The North Region Premier side are fifth in their division and McKeown won’t take them lightly. He said: “We are heading up north on Saturday so we’ll need to get ready for that.

“They are in the same league as Fraserburgh, who we beat 4-1 in the first round, but they are higher up the table and started a bit better than Fraserburgh. We’ll give them the respect they deserve and do a professional job to try and get into the next round.”

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