TEAM:-

REPORT:-

Today's North of Scotland Cup tie survived a pitch inspection this morning and so we travelled out to Rothienorman to face the local side Rothie Rovers. This afternoons opponents are well known to us as we have faced them many times in previous seasons. Keith and Shaw were late call offs and keeper Andrews was also missing however we still took 15 players north. We lined up with Michie in goal, back four of Sim, Fulton, Robertson and N.Milne. Midfield was formed by N.Wood, E.Milne, Longmuir and M.Woods. Up front G.Woods and Graham were partnered. Subs were the 4 'M' Egos namely Marlow, Murdoch, Merchant and Morgan. Very pleasing to see Morgan return after what has been a lengthy injury absence. Although he is not quite ready to make a full comeback yet he agreed to strip. The park at Rothie slopes towards one end and of course was very heavy as play commenced. We in truth had the opening stages when we were the side that set up the early scoring opportunities, however it was the home side who went in front with a rapid fire double scoring 2 in 2 minutes to stun the Halli faithful. The opener was a disaster as we allowed a winger far too much room up the right then despite a fantastic block by Robertson a forward chipped home. Seconds later M.Woods made a flying tackle on the left winger which the ref deemed to have taken place inside the box and we were 2 down in 25 mins. Robertson pulled one back in 35 after a superb stop from the keeper off a snap shot from E.Milne, the centre back prodded home the rebound. The keeper then denied both M.Woods and Longmuir with excellent stops to keep his side in front at the interval.(H.T.2-1) All to play for as the second half got underway with the pitch deteriorating by the minute. The area from the centre line back to our box was almost impossible to walk in and made for some comical errors. Sim was looking very confident and he showed the energy of a fit youngster on many occasions as he featured both in attack and defence, in 60 mins Sims cream coloured boots raced away up the line the get onto a through ball, his parting cross cum shot saved by the keeper, like a gazelle the darting full back returned to his defensive duties to swing a trusty clog at the keepers long clearance prompting his team mates as he covered every blade of grass making porno film sound effect heavy breathing and grunting sounds with every step he took. Fulton made what could have been a fatal error when he missed the ball but Michie closed down the attacker to force him into pushing it past. E.Milne had the ball in the net off a header but the ref waved play on insisting it had not crossed the line a decision strongly questioned by Longmuir. The home keeper went down with mud in his eye but N.Wood failed to pressure him from a corner soon after, putting it straight out of play. We continued to chase the equaliser but to no avail the match ending in a home victory. (F.T. 2-1) Good effort all over the park this afternoon but in all seriousness the hard luck stories are wearing a bit thin. We must stop gifting goals and have to become much more clinical in front of goal or else this season could and up as an embarrassment. Many good displays but Topman shaded by Robertson.