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Once again the all too familiar story of players being unavailable for various reasons was playing havoc with the team selection. At 10.00am on the Saturday morning it was looking like we would be unable to field eleven players, however by securing the services of a trialist (Craig Westfield) and G. Anderson available after previously ruling himself out we actually had 12 players to select from. The selection was picked by Jason Keith (Club captain) who was filling in for the Management Team with both Stuart Marlowe (Manager) and Jim Ritchie (Assistant) both away on International duty – holidays that is.

The starting eleven consisted of Michie in goals, a back four of, Murdoch, N. Milne Sim and Robertson, midfield of Keith, E. Milne, Morgan and Westfield with M. Woods and Anderson as strikers. Chris Sim has been playing well of late and was beaming with confidence when he was advised that he was playing sweeper – a position unfamiliar to him but he was relishing the challenge. Halli welcomed back Ewen Milne to the midfield after a back injury and Craig Westfield started his first game for Halliburton wide on the left handside of midfield. Mitchell was our substitute who was unlucky to find himself on the bench however he was late in arriving at the ground due to work commitments.

Todays opponents (SAIC) are a team well known to Halli for all the wrong reasons. In their two seasons within the Amateur ranks they have only managed to secure a total of 6 points to date with 3 of those coming from a victory over ourselves. A previous cup encounter this season resulted in a 4-0 victory for Halli but we had to be positive from the start and try and kill the game early on especially as the conditions would ensure that there was no advantage to either team.

Halli got off to a good start and were unlucky not to take the lead early on when Keith combined with E Milne down the right before cutting the ball back for the on-rushing Morgan who saw his well placed shot touched round the post magnificently by the SAIC keeper. Halli continued to play the better football but could not make the telling last pass which was frustrating the strikers. Halli were lucky not to go a goal behind when a SAIC midfielder crashed a powerful drive off the post which came back out to safety with Michie stranded. Halli failed to take advantage of their good possession and were punished with a couple of minutes to go before half time. A long ball out of defence by SAIC caught Halli napping and when Michie commited himself by rushing out of goals the SAIC striker lifted the ball goalwards which hit the woodwork and bounced back out only to be knocked into the empty net by another SAIC player.

Halli started the second half positively and it looked like SAIC were going to be happy to defend their lead by sitting deep. Halli got back into the game with about 15 minutes gone when a cross from Anderson was knocked out to the edge of the 18 yard box by the SAIC defence. The ball was picked up by Keith who seemed to take a while to tee up the shot before letting loose with an unstoppable drive into the stantion of the net. 1-1 game on. Halli continued to press for the winner and the game was being controlled by Morgan and Milne in the middle of the pitch with Robertson giving good support. Halli still lacked the final ball and were again punished when a hopefull ball into the box looked to be an easy collection for Michie in goals after shouting for it, however he flapped and dropped the ball which fell to an SAIC player who rammed into the empty net. Michie was in no doubt to blame for this error and he was aware of this. In 75 minutes Halli replaced trialist Westfield with Mitchell to try and gain some width down the left.

Halli were still controlling the game and were nearly level when Robertson was leaning back only to see his final shot rise and hit the crossbar before sailing over. Halli thought it was not to be their day when Anderson seemed to be certain to score from 10 yards with the keeper rooted, however the ball deflected off an SAIC defender who knew nothing about it and ended up going out for a corner. Halli were pushing hard for an equaliser and were rewarded in the 90^th minute when Woods hit what can only be described as a poor effort. As the Halli players turned in disgust the SAIC keeper who had played very well throughout, somehow managed to let the ball squirm underneath his body and into the net. After centre was taken it ended the match and a draw was all that could be mustered.

This display was certainly not totally disappointing as Dons manager Steve Patterson would say. There were a few positives to take from the match. Chris Sim came out unscathed in a competent performance at Sweeper. Ewen Milne performed well in Midfield as he continues his recovery from injury and Morgan looked to be back at his best by controlling the midfield throughout. This was certainly a case of dropped points as most of the other teams within the League have or will defeat SAIC and we are a team that should be capable of doing the same. It is apparent that the squad needs to be increased to cope with the ever present problems of players being unavailable.

Man of the match was one that could have gone to any one of three players, these being Morgan, Ewen Milne or Robertson. I have opted for Morgan on the basis that he was also chosen by SAIC as Man of the Match and therefore collects the vote.