Pollok 0 Irvine Meadow 2: Deeney hails 'rope-a-dope' tactics as Ayrshire outfit seal big three points

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Kevin Deeney says Irvine Meadow had to box clever to get the better of Glasgow heavyweights Pollok.Callum Graham's early strike left 'Lok reeling at Newlandsfield before Bryan Wharton landed the knockout blow with a second half header.The hosts stayed on the front foot for most of the West of Scotland League Premier Division contest but their powder puff attacks failed to get through Meadow's disciplined rearguard action.And Medda No 2 Deeney - standing in for gaffer George Grierson who is recuperating after a hip operation - admitted his side's tactics were straight out of ring king Mohammad Ali's playbook.He told Ayrshire Football News: "We scored with a nothing chance but once we went a goal up we thought, you know what, we're going to squeeze the life out of them."They had one decent chance with a header which was offside anyway but Louis Kerr had one cleared off the line for us and I thought, 'we can rope-a-dope them'."At half-time it was a case of just let them have the ball if they're not going to hurt us.

It kinda worked the way we'd hoped."Meadow broke the deadlock with just six minutes on the clock - albeit against the run of play.Connor Boyd's headed flick-on sent Graham in behind the Pollok backline and the striker's first-time shot squirmed under goalkeeper Jordan Longmuir and trickled towards goal.Everything then seemed to go in slow motion as Longmuir lunged at the ball, succeeding only in flicking it back up into Graham's path who used his thigh to net from point blank range.Pollok responded by keeping Meadow largely camped in their own half but for all their possession they only troubled goalkeeper Marc Waters once before half-time.Robbie Buchanan's curling strike from the edge of the penalty area looked