Cambuslang Rangers boss Paul McColl has owned up to having “mixed feelings” over the near total postponement of the West Region fixture list on Saturday.

A waterlogged Somervell Park ensured the Wee Gers were idle for a fourth consecutive week; however McColl’s simmering frustrations were tempered by better news on his side’s injury front.

He revealed: “It’s soul destroying to train and prepare all week only for the game to be called off just a few hours before kick-off time and it’s worse in our situation when a full month has passed since we played competitively .

“The one crumb of comfort has been our injury woes clearing up and now only Alex Smith and Ryan McBeth are looking doubtful for this week’s trip to meet local rivals East Kilbride Thistle, which is a massive improvement on how things were standing a few weeks ago when we were unable to fill jerseys.

"Chris Gordon is fit and ready again and he’ll come into contention for a forward line place along with Chris Faulds, Bob Davidson and Thomas Kilmartin.”

He went on: “It was also pleasing for all the Second Division sides to be in the same boat at the weekend because the last thing we want is to be playing catch up in terms of games.

“Right now we are sitting third top of the table and I’ll be very happy to retain that spot going into the New Year when hopefully we can have a real go at pulling back the lead held by league leaders Lanark United who deserve to be out in front after their performances in the first half of the season.

“The title contest is shaping up as being close so nobody at Cambuslang is giving up the ghost just yet and our aim is to find a bit of consistency in order to be there or thereabouts to take advantage if Lanark stumble.”

His club’s inactivity has prevented McColl blooding new signing Ryan Scanlon who numbers Vale of Clyde and Pollok among his previous Junior clubs.

The fledgling gaffer added, “Ryan is probably better known for spells with Ross County and Motherwell so I’m desperate to get him out on the pitch and see if he can produce his best in a Cambuslang Rangers shirt."

Junior football new boys Gartcairn, currently five points adrift of Cambuslang, showed their desire to figure in the Second Division promotion stakes with an audacious transfer swoop to land highly rated Rossvale Juniors front man Yammi Misanjo at the weekend.

The free-scoring striker stepped up from the Bishopbriggs club to Albion Rovers during the summer months but obtained his release and returned to his former Junior club only last month.

Rossvale boss Martin Lauchaln admitted, "Yammi wanted to make this move and we are not a club that stands in the way of players so he goes with our best wishes.

“It helped make our mind up that he’s started only one game since coming back so he can hardly be called a massive loss, particularly with our other front men scoring regularly.”

The astro-grass surfaces at Petershill and Benburb may have failed to pass pitch inspections but there were still two fixtures involving West Region sides that survived the weekend elements.

The sterling work put in by Irvine Vics club officials to get Victoria Park deemed playable paid off handsomely as Stevie Wilson’s men opened up a ten point gap atop the Ayrshire District League with a 2-0 defeat of closest challengers Darvel thanks to goals from David Adams and Scott Chesney.

And up in far Northern parts, St Anthonys suffered a 3rd Round exit in the ETHX Energy Scottish Junior Cup when going down to a 3-1 defeat against North Region leading lights Stonehaven.

The visiting Ants raised hopes of causing a Cup shock when taking a 1-0 lead through a Paul O’Brien header around the 20 minute mark but hopes nosedived on the back of a double hammer blow approaching half time.

Stonehaven’s top scorer Richard Wyness levelled the scores at 1-1 before Ants stopper Abu Mansare was red carded to leave his teammates fighting an uphill battle that turned into a mountain within 15 minutes of the restart as Wyness and Paul Armstrong added further scores for the home side.

ETHX Energy Scottish Junior Cup Third Round: Stonehaven 3 St Anthony's 1; McBookie.com Ayrshire District League: Irvine Vics 2 Darvel 0.