The club are saddened to announce the passing of long serving Ants committee man Joe Reilly, who passed away earlier this afternoon aged 92. Joe was a popular member of the committee and an absolute gentleman with a great sense of humour and he will be sadly missed at McKenna Park.

Rest in Peace Joe.

February is the international campaign month of ‘Football v Homophobia’ (FvH) and we here at Saint Anthony’s are supporting the initiative.

FvH is a campaign uniting football in opposing homophobia and prejudice against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTI) people in football.Year round, FvH Scotland enables people to take action against prejudice and discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression in football, and to celebrate and welcome diversity in the game. This culminates in an international show of support in February to raise awareness of theissue and to join together in making a visible stand against prejudice and for inclusion.

Saint Anthony’s are pleased to be supporting the campaign this season as part of the FvH grassroots initiative. Ants Head of Digital and Social Media Martin McKenna said: “We are delighted to sign up for Football v Homophobia Scotland’s month of action. It is sad that in this day and age a persons sexual orientation or gender identity should require a month of action to make them feel included and welcome in football. The club has a constitution which is clear that we are a club welcome to all regardless of religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, race or origin and are proudly non sectarian and non political. When we saw FVH Scotland were launching this campaign we were delighted to get in touch and pledge our support and we have designated our match on the 15th of February v Ardeer Thistle to highlight the campaign, but will be active through the full month and beyond in supporting FVH”

Recent Outsport research found that almost 88% of Scottish respondents considered homophobia in sport to be a current problem. Almost ⅓ of Scotland’s LGBTI respondents have refrained from a certain sport because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The sport which respondents most often refrained from was football (41%), a particularly high figure in comparison to other EU countries.

Attitudes in Football are changing, but we all need to make sure that the language we use and the way we behave reflects this change. At The Ants we believe we can make a real difference to the culture of football, and we’d like your support. We know that change starts with education and The Ants recognises its has a role to play in leading the way on raising awareness of homophobia and LGBTI discrimination within the club and its community.

Saint Anthony’s FC  believes in a game where LGBTI people can be seen and heard, and valued for their contribution to football. The Ants will work to create a safe and inclusive football environment where people of all sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions are welcome.

The Ants will be designating a game in support of the Football v Homophobia campaign this February in our match v Ardeer Thistle on Saturday the 15th of the month at McKenna Park  This is an opportunity for our supporters and friends to also get behind the campaign and show everyone that The Ants is no place for hate or bigotry.

At our #FvH2020 designated game The Ants will be making a pledge to improve our club by using the rainbow matchball to show our support and having our team photographed holding up pledge cards. We will be putting up posters in our changing rooms and toilet facilities stating that they are inclusive of all and will be contacting local LGBTI groups, pubs and clubs inviting them along to the game to show they are more than welcome at McKenna Park.

Find out more about the Football v Homophobia campaign and action you can personally take in February, here:

fvhscotland.org Twitter: @fvhscot | Facebook: www.facebook.com/FvHScot

Following Saturday’s exit from the Macron Scottish Junior Cup away to Broughty Athletic, Ants manager John Kelly wanted to place on record his thanks to the fans and committee who travelled to Elgin and Broughty to give the boys their backing.

Speaking to The Ants website John said “I want to thank the support we have had in both our Scottish cup ties this season, two big long away trips to Elgin and Dundee and the backing that the boys and myself got was as usual, excellent. The New Elgin result was a great one for the team but unfortunately we couldn’t repeat the same performance against Broughty, who are a top team”

“My only regret is that I couldn’t give our superb following another round in the Scottish Cup this season so from me and my players, Thank you for your support”

Ants striker Kamil Leszczynski was the toast of McKenna Park as his double saw the Ants go into the hat for the third round draw on the 8th of October as John Kelly’s injury ravaged side left it late to put New Elgin to the sword.

The Ants were missing NINE players as they made the 4+ hour journey north to face North Region side New Elgin in the second round of the Macron Scottish Junior cup leaving them down to the bare bones but they dug out a fine 2-1 victory against a stuffy New Elgin side.

Ants top goalscorer last season Scott Arthur came back to haunt the Ants with new club Vale of Leven, scoring two goals in a 5-0 defeat of John Kelly’s men at McKenna Park, in a match where nothing went right for the injury hit home side.

The Ants made a number of changes to the starting XI from the win at Maybole, with Patrick, McLean, Milne, Turner, McLaughlin and McGarroch all not making the 11 for various reasons including injury to at least 4 of them, Goalkeeping coach Tony Curran taking his place between the sticks, with Crawford, Williams, Leszczynski, McGarrigle and Taylor coming into the side.

 

 

 

After the disappointment of the midweek defeat to Vale of Clyde, Ants manager John Kelly rung the changes with four changes to his starting line up. Littler, Conway, Mark McIlvaney and Sinclair coming in place of McGarrigle, Marshall, MacDonald and Williams. The changes though did not immediately appear to have made a difference as it was the visitors who took the lead when a long diagonal ball found Howson at the back post, he squared the ball to MARTIN JANIK and the big striker knocked past Patrick to give Newmains the lead with only three minutes on the clock much to the despair of the Ants crowd who were looking for the team to bounce back.

Having said that, it was somewhat of a false dawn for the visitors as from then on in it was pretty much a game of attack v defense as the Ants piled on the pressure looking for the equaliser, with the visitors having to try and play on the counter. There were a couple of half chances for the Ants as Gallacher, Edwards and McLaughlin all had efforts that were either easily dealt with by Meek or went high or wide of the target. Sinclair, making his first start since joining in the summer, was impressive on the right hand side and his crosses were causing problems at the back for the visitors and in the 15th minute he almost got lucky as one of his crosses ended with Meek adjusting his feet well to save as it threatened to go in. Leszczynski will probably feel he could have done better in the 22nd minute when McLaughlin clipped a ball to the back post, Gallacher couldn’t get his head to it but it found the Polish striker who caught the ball maybe a little too well and from a tightish angle his shot went over the bar. Milne then whipped in a great cross a minute later onto the head of the aforementioned Leszczynski but he couldn’t direct his header on target and Meek watched on gratefully as the ball went just past his near post. In the 26th minute the Ants got the goal their play deserved and a fine team goal it was too. Gallacher picked up the ball in the middle of the park, he ran with it then passed it to McIlvaney, who played it to McLaughlin, he switched the play to the Ants left back Milne who in turn found Gallacher, His short pass found DAVID EDWARDS 25 yards out and the Ants striker let fly with a shot on the turn past he despairing Meek and into the bottom corner to level things up with his 4th goal in 6 games for the club.

Having drawn level, the Ants were now in the hunt for a second to take the lead and the McKenna Park crowd were almost celebrating again on the half hour mark when good play between McIlvaney and Leszczynski saw the latter find Milne but the left back’s shot flew inches wide of Meek’s far post. There wasnt long to wait though when in the 35th minute the Ants did take the lead, Sinclair’s cross finding the head of KAMIL LESZCZYNSKI at the back post and he powered a header across the keeper and into the net to make it 2-1 to the Govan side. Sinclair then had a shot of his own well held by Meek but the Newmains keeper was powerless to stop the Ants extending their lead in the 42nd minute when Edwards laid the ball back to MARK MCILVANEY at the edge of the box and the midfielder smashed the ball home for his second in two games to give the Ants a two goal cushion. Newmains almost grabbed a second in first half injury time but Banks was denied by a great tackle from Crawford, which led to the Ants defender picking up a sore one for his troubles as the ball went behind for a goal kick.

HALF TIME – ANTS 3 (EDWARDS 26, LESZCZYNSKI 36, M.MCILVANEY 42) v 1 NEWMAINS (JANIK 3)

The second half was more of the same with the Ants camped in the Newmains half for the vast majority, and within minutes of the restart the home side almost added a fourth when Leszczynski played a neat 1-2 with Edwards but Meek did well to save from the former’s drive at goal. With 58 minutes on the clock the Ants got the 4th when Leszczynski found CHRIS MCLAUGHLIN who danced and twisted away from a couple of Newmains players before pirouetting from a third then steadied himself to fire past Meek into the far corner. The Ants then introduced Andy Turner and Gary McGarroch with Sinclair and Edwards making way and if Newmains thought this would mean a bit of respite they would have been wrong with both players looking to add to the Ants goal tally.

Leszczynski once again was denied by Meek in the Newmains goal when he was put through on goal, the keeper this time thwarting him with his feet. The Ants were pushing hard for goal number five and in the 68th minute they got the goal their efforts deserved with another great team goal. Patrick took a short goal-kick to Conway, who rolled the ball to Milne, The Ants full back spotted the run into the channel by Leszczynski and found him with a great long pass, he beat a Newmains defender before cutting the ball back into the path of sub ANDY TURNER who didn’t even have to break his stride to dispatch the ball past Meek for his first goal for the club and the Ants fifth of the afternoon. Credit to Newmains who could have easily thrown in the towel but they kept trying to play football, and a nice move saw Janik sent down the edge of the penalty box but his cross was a little too close to Patrick who gathered well.

This spurred the Ants back into action and two goals in three minutes put the gloss on the scoreline, the first coming from the penalty spot when Leszczynski was fouled in the box and GARY MCGARROCH stepped up to calmly put the ball past Meek for his first goal for the club to put the Ants 6-1 ahead and then a goal of the season contender from ANDY TURNER in the 78th minute when he volleyed home from the join between the touchline and the halfway line after Meek had miskicked an attempted clearance, the Newmains keeper tried to chase back in vain but he was helpless to stop it as the ball went in at his far post to put the Ants fans into seventh heaven.

Newmains did manage to pull a consolation goal back a minute later when a mix-up in the Ants defence saw Patrick come to collect a through ball, whilst an Ants defender or two tried to shepherd the ball back to him, only to see the ball fall to ALLAN HALLIDAY who couldn’t believe his luck and he gladly rolled the ball into the empty net to make it 7-2. There were a couple of further chances for the Ants to add to their tally but a mixture of good goalkeeping, last gasp defending and poor finishing saw them unable to notch any more goals.

FULL TIME – ANTS 3 (EDWARDS 26, LESZCZYNSKI 36, M.MCILVANEY 42, MCLAUGHLIN 58, TURNER 68,78 MCGARROCH 75 (PEN) ) v 2 NEWMAINS (JANIK 3, HALLIDAY 79)