REPORT:
This
afternoon unfortunately there was a shortage of referees and we were one of the
casualties. We were fortunate however to be offered a friendly match against
A.A.F.A.Division 2(South) side Maryculter. This was a much preferred option to
training and so we travelled out to Culter to hopefully continue our winning
streak. This of course provided the perfect opportunity to hand a start to some
of the guys who have in the recent past not been involved as much as some of the
others. We fielded an unusual looking side to say the least with only N.Milne a
fixture in the back four. He was joined by England at sweeper and Quirie at
centre half. Murdoch was in at left back to play in his first game of the
season. Sim filled the wide right berth with Wood his opposite number on the
left. E.Milne eagerly grasped the chance to take part having been forced through
suspension to fill only a spectators role for the past few weeks, he was joined
in the centre by Keith. Merchant and Graham were up front and Michie pulled on
the gloves to keep goal. On the bench we had the experienced Longmuir, Marlow
and G.Woods. It was obviously going to take a little time for our reformed back
four to gel and the home side looked the more likely to open the scoring in the
early stages. They looked lively up front however some wayward shooting set the
tone and in truth they very rarely threatened despite creating one or two decent
chances. Michie had to pull off one save which he stopped with his foot but in
the main neither keeper was asked to perform to any degree. A good run by N.Wood
set up Merchant for what should have been the opener however he produced a Van
Vossen effort as he scooped it over the top from only 6 yards! (H.T0-0) Right
after the restart Longmuir, Marlow and G.Woods on as subs linked to put us in
front. Marlow picked up in the centre circle, fed Longmuir who released G.Woods
he ran in to slam us in front. A short lived lead as 5 mins later a deep cross
looked to be dropping onto Quiries head, unfortunately the big man jumped down
the way and his opponent gleefully shot home. The Graeme Woods show now rolled
into town and he went on a one man demolition crusade. He put us back in front
with an almost identical goal to his opener. He struck a third after the keeper
blocked his header off a corner, then right on the final whistle he turned in
our and his own fourth goal to leave the home side wandering what it would have
been like if he had been on for the full 90 mins. Prior to our fourth goal
Longmuir was denied by a breathtaking save after a strong run and angled drive
had looked in all the way. (F.T.1-4). A good work out and G.Woods took the
opportunity to storm up our scoring charts for the season. The striker has now
scored an amazing 10 goals from the last 5 matches. A fact made even more
remarkable given that he had failed to find the net in any of our previous 5
games! Lets hope he can keep this fantastic run going when we get back to league
business. A third win on the run will not do us any harm as this can only boost
our confidence. We should have at least some of the 6 regulars missing this
afternoon back on duty for the next match but I would think it would be fair to
assume that Graeme Woods will be in the starting line up ! Mr. Goals picks up
the Hallitopman award.