The Hoops made it into the last 16 of the Scottish Cup after an action packed rollercoaster of a game against East of Scotland League side West Calder Utd. Seemingly coasting at 3-0, two quick fire goals made it 3-2 before young Lyall netted a fourth to settle the home nerves.
The visitors kicked off playing into the breeze and had the first change when Booth turned Goggs but his shot from a tight angle was pulled wide. After quarter of an hour Goggs then had to go off injured and was replaced by Tom Hutch. Midway through the half we grabbed the lead when Nick Gray latched on to a through ball and lifted the ball over the advancing keeper and into the net. Soon after Sam forced an excellent save from the visiting keeper with a free kick and Glen headed the resultant corner narrowly wide meaning we ended the half with a single goal lead.
A blistering start to the second half looked to have put us in control of things. Firstly in the 48th minute a passback was intercepted by Nick and he rounded the keeper to net his second. Four minutes later it got even better for the home side and Nick in particular when he grabbed his third with a close range finish after good work by Joey Leyden on the right. It looked like game over when Nick raced through again and slotted home but a debated offside call chalked off what would have surely been a clinching goal. West Calder were never going to throw in the towel though and pulled one back in the 68th minute when a corner fell to Hay at the edge of the box and he turned and fired a great finish past Bell to pull one back. Six minutes later the visitors were right back in the game when a free kick 25 yards out was saved by Bell but he spilled the ball with Taylor knocking home the rebound. All of a sudden it had gone from cruise control to squeaky bum time. Veteran Mark Bartlet and youngster Lyall Keir were brought on and we managed to settle things down and with five minutes remaining a neat build up saw the ball fall to Lyall 12 yards out and he showed great composure taking a touch and slotting in the goal that finished the tie off.
We wish West Calder UTD all the best for the rest of the season and for Dyce it’s on to a 4th round tie away to Muirkirk in Ayrshire in Nov.