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Match day 2 in the AAFA Division(2) South league fixtured Halliburton at home against Bridge of Don. As was the case on Saturday our squad was stretched to the limits with only 12 to choose from at kick off. Player/Manager Marlow at this point in the final stages of a 400 mile dash to be there. He arrived just after the start and joined England on the bench. We had Andrews in goal, N.Milne, Robertson, Michie and Sim in defence,Keith, E.Milne Morgan and M.Woods in the middle and G.Woods and Graham up front. The surface was fiery to say the least but both sides settled quickly into their stride. Marlow arrived after only three minutes and was greeted by the unwelcoming sight of the opening goal for Bridge of Don. N.Milne missed out on an opportunity to clear, Andrews saved the initial shot but the rebound was turned in. We battled to get back in it and Graham went through a challenge to break free, unfortunately the ball bounced high off the hard pitch and went back over him. G.Woods broke free but fired into the side netting then in 18 minutes the big striker put us level. A neat ball over the defence found him in a suspiciously tight offside position but the ref waved play on and credit to Woods he slammed it home. Sim was shining and on more than one occasion the reborn slimline full back showed skill which defied all his previous Halli performances, he was buzzing and quite simply enjoying his finest hour in Halli colours. Both sets of players continued to battle but neither could find the net (H.T.1-1) We had to combat the fact that too often we were being mussled out of the play at times our defence were far too easily being beaten in the one to one battles. That said Robertson was showing up well in his first league appearance of the season. Sim blotted his copy book when on the hour he more than anyone else contributed to Bridge of Don retaking the lead. He had begun to believe in his own publicity and tried to waltz the ball out of the area after initially doing well to win it. He gave it away far too cheaply to set up an attack, from this, a chip into the box was superbly struck and gave Andrews little to no chance. Our keeper then went through a busy spell and pulled off a number of stops to keep us in it. In 80 minutes G.Woods rose unchallenged to meet a corner kick from his brother but he headed it miles wide. This was to be a costly miss as 2 minutes later we fell 2 behind. The left winger was given far too much space to collect a wide pass, he moved in on goal and squared to an attacker who appeared to be offside. The ref allowed play to continue and the striker did as all good strikers should, ignored our shouts and banged it home. As we now chased the game G.Woods was involved in a bizarre incident when he was savagely attacked by a raging spectator. The 2 year old fan insenced that Woods had become involved with his daddy took matters into his own hands when he trotted onto the park unnoticed to firstly kick then slap at Woods leg …..Pay back!!! When the police had removed the invader we messed up the free kick before winning another which Woods sluggishly trundled into the ground, the big man still visibly shaken following the unwarranted spectator attack. Michie then picked up a booking when he spat the dummy after being shoved out of the way by a big boy. Moments later the by the book ref blew for time (F.T.1-3). The ref did not have a bad match but seemed to have come straight from the referees coaching college, he seemed obsessed with the "match ball" always desperate to have a spare one on hand. This infact prompted one of our supporters to warn messers Marlow and Ritchie to be aware not to pick up a caution for match ball abuse. Tonights result was disappointing but we did not produce too bad a performance. The goals we lost were all bad ones and should have been prevented. The secret now of course is not to let the heads drop, we must dig in and push for 3 points on Saturday. Hallitopman tonight is Sim.