REPORT:-
An
amazing 19 man squad had gathered at Hazlehead as we prepared to take on
Sportsmans Club in match day no.2 of season 26. Late arrivals Andrews and
Murdoch were not considered and England appearing for the first time this season
also missed out. Stuart Marlow rang the changes both in terms of personnel and
positions. We lined up with Michie in goal, a back four made up of the same four
as Saturday however with Shaw and Fulton swoping positions to start, N.Milne,
Robertson, Shaw and Fulton. Longmuir returned to take up a central midfield
position alongside Morgan flanked by Keith and N.Wood. Up front Merchant and
M.Woods were partnered. On the bench were Graham, Sim, Quirie Fisken and Marlow.
Prior to the match Stuart had stated that everyone would be given a chance to
start throughout the opening 4 matches and this will be the case. It was
imperative that tonight we took something from the match following a
disappointing result and performance in Saturdays opener. We had to close the
opposition down and get the ball down allowing us to play football. Sportsman,
formerly College of Education, had suffered a 1-4defeat on Saturday and so they
too would be keen to get off the mark this evening. A pretty even first half was
contested with our closest thing coming in 25 minutes. N.Wood did well up the
left and cut inside before sending a low shot off the keepers near side post. We
did engineer a couple more half chances but nothing clear cut. The result at
half time was about right(H.T.0-0) Everything to play for as the match
restarted. Michie got Fulton out of jail on the hour when the full back was too
easily pushed off the ball setting up his opponent for a shot which was
brilliantly turned round the post by Michie. We went in front in 68 mins.
Longmuir battled to win the ball inside our half and despite being grounded
managed to thread it to Morgan. He found Merchant with a great pass and the red
head hit a first timer to lob the keeper. The keeper was then booked for
protesting about god knows what? Only 90 seconds later we doubled our lead.
N.Wood had been switched with M.Woods and his pace got him onto a through ball.
He hit a half volley which ripped into the net. Looking good at this stage.
Graham replaced Merchant for the last 15 minutes and right away sent N.Wood
clear. Following a few interchanges N.Wood found himself in on goal and should
have done better when he fluffed a good opportunity. Shaw gift wrapped a goal
for Sportsmans when he got an easy clearance all wrong, Michie given no chance.
This lifted the visitors and they levelled the proceedings in 85 minutes. N.Wood
and Morgan got in each others way on the half way but we had ample opportunity
to clear any danger. Shaw, Robertson and Fulton all failed to do so and a miss
hit was sent past a despairing Michie. N.Wood had a half chance after this but
the game finished at (F.T. 2-2) Gutted, no question that this is 2 points lost
because of poor defending yet again. Overall a much better display but we threw
away the chance of our first league victory. Hallitopman this evening goes to
Nick Wood.