| Match Report |
Salters went into this game missing a couple of players and with only two subs. However, we were looking for a good performance after the draw with St Vincent's on Sunday.
Salters started this game well and the central midfield duo of Jon Weir and Steffen Dulas controlled the ball. Alba's only real threat was the long throw in from the full back which will cause a lot of teams trouble this year. There were a few tackles flying in from Alba early on which in a league match would have resulted in straight red cards. After a couple of half chances were missed Salters took the lead through Richard Murray. A magnificent cross field pass from Mikey Thomson was taken on the chest by Richard and he cut inside and buried it. Richard got our second after a good through ball by Paul Milligan. Richard rouded the goalkeeper and rolled the ball home. Salters went in 2-0 up at half time and it maybe should have been more.
At half time Salters had to make changes. The excellent Dani Muir had to come off injured and this meant a complete change around. Central midfielder Steffen was forced out to right back and our right winger Mikey Thomson was forced into central midfield. Although we started to loose the midfield at this point we did manage a third goal. A stunning pass through the central defenders saw Paul Milligan hit the post, Paul Nelson converted the rebound cooly to make it 3-0. Alba then started to come back into the game and scored with a well worked and well taken goal down the right hand side, 3-1. Then they were awarded a penalty after Mikey won a header cleanly on the edge of our box, 3-2. Salters scored again to make it 4-2 when Paul Milligan was sent clear through on goal, taking one touch and beating the goalkeeper. Richard scored again to make it 5-2 but this was somehow ruled offside. Alba pulled another one back after a shot from the Alba forward went miles wide. However somehow a corner was given and Alba scored with a well taken finish, 4-3. Alba made it 4-4 when Darren Smith and Paul Nelson cleanly won a tackle, a free kick was given and the shot was deflected and ended up in the bottom corner.
This was a bad tempered game with everything; sending offs, several yellows, penalties, off the ball incidents, 8 goals, missed chances, disallowed goals and it must have been a good game to watch from the sidelines. However it was extremely frustrating to play in.
Had Salters stuck to the football and not got involved in the fights we would have won the game, however the lesson has been learnt and we will take this into future games. We showed again we can match anyone in a physical battle, however if we stick to the football of the first 60 mins we would have won the game.
We now look forward to Balmoral on Sunday.
Team: Shane Thomson, Dani Muir (Scott Liddle), Steven Illingworth, Ryan Newton, Paul Nelson, Mikey Thomson, Steffen Dulas, Jon Weir, Darren Smith, Richard Murray (Kris Murdoch), Paul Milligan. (SUBS IN BRACKETS).
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