REPORT:-
Following on from last
Saturdays poor performance, we travelled out to the Garioch village of Monymusk
to take on the local Division(2)South side in the 2nd Rnd of the AFC Trophy. We
had easily taken care of our first round opponents FC Bye! England was
unavailable from last weeks squad but Andrews, Sim and Quirie, who has not
featured since our match against Cornhill a month ago, all returned. The keeper
was reinstated behind a defence of N.Milne, Shaw, Robertson and Michie. In the
middle were Keith, Longmuir, Quirie and M.Woods with G.Woods and Merchant
providing the fire power. On the bench were Marlow, Sim and the injured Graham.
Monymusk forced the issue in the opening minutes and put us under pressure,
Robertson was immense during this period and won a number of important clashes.
The value of front post headers had been highlighted by Jim Ritchie prior to ko
and that is exactly how we grabbed the lead in 15 mins. A Longmuir throw headed
home by G.Woods. We got a second from a freak goal in 20 mins. Another Longmuir
throw somehow found its way into the net, M.Woods claiming a touch albeit with
the brush of a nostril hair! We were 2 up, in truth, against the run of play,
however we were now to go on and dominate the rest of the half. A good move
moments later saw Keith find G.Woods, his lay back to Longmuir setting up a
drive which was gathered by the keeper. Merchant and Longmuir both tried
unsuccessful overhead kick attempts then Michie went on a strong forward run.
The big man linked with M.Woods before cutting inside. We waited with baited
breath as the moment of realisation hit him. Only a pass or shot with the right
foot was on! Time stood still as he wrestled the problem before coming up with
the idea of tripping up and winning a free kick rather than swing the untrusty
club foot! We did put the ball in the net again however Mr. Falconer disallowed
it for an unknown infringement. Quirie
threaded a neat ball through but the home sweeper tidied up as we finished the
half well on top.(H.T.0-2) We simply now had to achieve a result in the second
half to progress to the next round. It was Musk who had the first effort on goal
which was driven past Andrews far post. At this point Musk were taking over
however cometh the hour cometh the man and the inspirational Longmuir upped a
gear, if that is possible for him? For the entire 2nd half he covered every
blade of grass on the park. He was superb showing bucket loads of passion and
enthusiasm to go alongside his amazing stamina. Longmuir time and again linked
with Keith and G.Woods and he ensured that Musk were not going to play
themselves back into the match. During our total ascendancy we should have
scored 3 or 4 more at least. A great cross from Keith went begging. Robertson
shot wide. Merchant dithered and worst of all was a G.Woods miss when he could
have scored at least twice. Longmuir then surpassed even his own standards with
the longest throw on record. He cunningly climbed into the car park to launch it
from altitude towards the back post Quirie coming close to getting onto it.
Marlow and Sim replaced Quirie and Robertson just in time to see Merchant pass
up a golden chance, then Milne had a fresh air effort inside the home box.(F.T.
0-2). Good result, some excellent early touch football from us and well pleasing
to come away with our first clean sheet of the season. The only negative this
afternoon was our goals scored from chances created ratio, everyone knows we
should have scored at worst another 3 or 4. We had no failures this afternoon
and Robertson, particularly in the first half pushed Longmuir for man of the
match. However the centre back couldn’t live with the evergreen midfielder in
the second half and so Hallitopman today goes to Gary Longmuir.