Star booked their place in the last eight of the League Cup but they were pushed all the way by a battling Creetown side. Castle Cary Park is always a tough place to visit and this match was no different, but though the scoreline was always close, Star thoroughly deserved their victory. Even fairly early in the second half you always felt one goal would be enough to win this tie and that it would take a mistake or a piece of brilliance to separate the sides. Thankfully for Star it was the latter and the moment to remember was provided by substitute Charlie Cantlie late on.
Star lined up minus Andy Caffrey and Ross Hunter from last weeks win over Lochar, but captain Kyle HIggins returned from suspension and Phil Middlemiss came off the bench to start. The visitors dominated the ball for long spells but the home side worked so hard to deny them space and they were able to maintain this for most of the 90 minutes. There were few chances throughout the match though a couple fell to Middlemiss early on, one that was saved by keeper Downie and another that just missed the target. The home side were relying on set plays to put pressure on the Star defence but they coped comfortably. The closest Creetown came to scoring was in the 33rd minute when a near post glancing header from Rennie was well saved by Jake Gemmell. Star continued to push and probe but struggled to cut open a very compact home defence but a chance did fall to Connor Potts right on the half time whistle but he couldn't find the target.
The second half followed the same pattern as the first with both goalkeepers being rarely troubled. In the 54th minute Dan Carmichael curled in a free kick from the corner of the penalty area that was missed by everyone in the middle but the ball came back off the far post and was eventually cleared. As the game wore on the possibility of a penalty shoot out was becoming more apparent as there would be no extra time and there were even fewer chances being created. Olly Meechan and Middlemiss combined well down the right but Middlemiss shot over from inside the box. In the 73rd minute Cantlie's moment to remember arrived. He came off the bench ten minutes earlier and had looked very lively in that time with his pace and direct running. He collected a ball and came in from the left and from some 25 yards fired in a terrific right foot shot that flew low into the bottom corner of the Creetown net giving keeper Downie no chance at all. It was a great moment for the youngster and will do his confidence no harm at all going forward.
With nothing to lose the home side did all they could to get back into the match but other than saving a tame free kick late on, keeper Gemmell had little to do. In fact Cantlie almost score a second in stoppage time when his shot from inside the box came back off the crossbar. So Star go through in a match that was always competitive from start to finish and was well officiated by the referee. It's back to league duty next week as we travel further along the A75 with a trip to Wigtown where we will look to maintain the pressure on Stranraer at the top of the league.

CREETOWN 0 DALBEATTIE STAR 1
Cantlie (73)
HT 0-0 Att. 52
CREETOWN: Downie, B Wilson, Brown, Whorlow, M Wilson, Richardson, Halliday, Agnew, Hughes, Hale (Sutherland 77), Rogers
Subs not used: McCaulay, McCulloch, Nish, McDevitt, Faulds
Yellow Cards: B Wilson, Richardson, M Wilson, Rogers
DALBEATTIE STAR: Gemmell, Harkness (E Taylor 63), O'Sullivan, Higgins, Renwick, D Taylor, Carmichael, Woods (Cantlie 63), Paterson, Potts (Meechan 46), Middlemiss
Subs not used: R Taylor, Kehoe, Ferguson
Yellow Cards: D Taylor
Ref: L Graham