Swifts book place in GA Final

Jeanfield booked their place in the final of the GA Engineering Cup with a tremendous 2-1 win over Super League Broughty Athletic last night at Whitton Park.

Lewis Baker scored the winner midway through the second half giving Swifts the victory that sees us into our third GA Cup final in five seasons.

Premier League promotion rivals Lochee United will be the opponents on Saturday May 14 with the game to be played at Tannadice, the home of Championship bound Dundee United.

Both sides went into the game with contrasting fortunes. The home side were off the back of a 4-1 win at Penicuik on Saturday while Swifts were hammered 5-1 at Bathgate with what has been described as the worst Swifts performance for many a year.

It was Swifts who opened the scoring inside the opening 20 minutes. Good work on the right hand side saw the ball fed to Chris McLeish inside the box. He turned his marker & in the process off laying the ball off he was upended by a home defender. With the spot kick king Tony Holt on the bench, Stevie McManus stepped up to take the responsibility. Keeper Ross got a hand to his penalty but he could not stop it hitting the back of the net.

The home side levelled the score on 41 minutes & it was also from the penalty spot after Lunan was fouled from a corner. Buchan, fresh off a weekend treble stepped up and fired past Mark Mitchell & that was how it stayed to the break.

The winning goal was a fantastic free flowing move that ended with a fantastic finish from Baker. Sean Fleming started the move with a pass that carved open the home defence as he found McLeish in the wide position. He passed inside to McManus who was set to shoot on goal but at the last second he played the ball to the onrushing Baker who smashed the ball low past Ross and into the back of the net.

The home side started pushing more & more bodies forward in an attempt to get an equiliser but had substitute Cameron sent off for 2 bookings as Swifts held on to book their place in the Tannadice showpiece.

Great commitment, attitude & character shown from all of the Perth side from not just the starting 11 but the whole squad whose bottle has been questioned in the last few weeks by several people.

Player Manager Ross Gunnion told the website "A very pleasing reaction to last Saturdays disappointing result. I felt we more than matched our Super League opponents all over the park. Particularly pleasing was the performance of the midfield of Smith, Fowler & McManus who showed great energy & quality."