TEAM:-

REPORT:-

For the first time this season we found ourselves well short of a full squad as we travelled north to meet league rivals Blackburn. We only had a total of 12 players to choose from and of course this meant that a number of players would receive a reprieve as the axe was certain to fall following our display last Saturday. As it was we lined up Michie, N.Milne, Marlow, Robertson and England. N.Wood, Longmuir, Keith and M.Woods and G.Woods alongside Graham up front. Merchant who had this morning left Spain to return home was our only substitute. Blackburn play on a pitch that slopes all over the place and of course they know how to play this to their advantage. We struggled to get into the match but did carve out an early opportunity with Graham firing wide. Soon after this G.Woods got a head onto an England free kick but could only direct his effort wide of the target. In 15 mins Marlow picked up on the centre circle before playing a one two with N.Woods which beat the offside trap, unfortunately his first touch took him too wide and the chance was lost. In 18mins. Blackburn took the lead. A long ball to the back post looked pretty safe as N.Wood escorted it out however he was not prepared for an attacker who nicked it off him and chipped over a cross to an unmarked forward who nodded past Michie. They were 2 up soon after, a low corner was missed by N.Milne and Michie, surprised to see the ball fly under the full backs foot, could only slap it into the path of a striker who tucked it away. Poor defending had cost us two goals and then a wayward header by England let the centre in but this time his shot crashed off the bar. We did start to come into things and enjoyed the lions share of play for the remaining 20 mins of the first half without ever putting the keeper under pressure.(H.T. 2-0) We again started slowly but did put together a good move down the right when Keith linked with Longmuir we eventually won a corner from this move but could not take advantage. We lost a bad 3^rd in 60 when a low driven cross was missed by Marlow, the ball fell nicely to his opponent and with a strong shot on its way past the far post the ball caught N.Milne in the goolies and it flew past Michie into the net. At this stage we did lift ourselves a little and grabbed a lifeline in 70mins. Marlow cleared up the right to Longmuir, he found Keith who sent N.Wood away, his run was impeded inside the box however the ref allowed the advantage from which N.Wood messed up. Luckily G.Woods was on hand to slam home the rebound. We were now back in with a chance. Keith had a half chance then N.Wood should have done better when he chose to shoot instead of squaring to the waiting G.Woods. We then fell right out of things again and Michie was slack in conceding a fourth with sloppy handling. A 5^th was then hammered home as we fell apart towards the end of the match.(F.T.5-1) Very disappointing display this afternoon as in truth we only played for around 20 mins. in the first half and maybe 25 in the second with any real conviction. The goals that we conceded, apart from the fifth, were all very poor with individual mistakes contributing each time. It is all too easy to blame the loss of regulars such as Morgan, Fulton and E.Milne but we had a more than capable eleven out from the start this afternoon. The individual errors cost us dearly and we must work very hard to cut these out in future matches. A good display from England but topman goes to Longmuir.