Match Detail

Salters let another two points slip against Alba at Dalkeith, despite being the better team and dominating most of the match.

Salters opened the scoring through Paul Nelson after good work and then an excellent cross from Richard Murray. Paul dived home to head high in to the net. Salters were creating a lot of chances and playing a lot of good football. Paul Nelson raced clean through on goal only to be denied by an excellent last ditch tackle, Paul Milligan had two half chances in the box and Salters had a few other half chances to add to the scoring. It was 1-0 at half time.

However the second goal didn’t come. Alba equalised after slack defending. Salters had a couple of chances to clear the ball however it wasn’t cleared and fell kindly for the Alba player to slot the ball home. Salters stepped up a gear after this and went ahead again. Again Richard Murray did well down the right hand side and squared for Paul Milligan to slot the ball home to make it 2-1 to Salters. We again created many chances, Richard Murray going clean through but was denied by another last ditch tackle. From set pieces we always looked likely and hit the bar a couple times, had headers just over the bar or wide of the post and a few efforts cleared off the line.  At 2-1 up and 30 seconds left to play Salters conceded the softest of goals. The Alba defender was allowed to travel unchallenged from his half and shot from 35 lads, the ball dipped in the wind and John Paget in goals spilled it into the net. It was unfortunate for John who has saved Salters many times this season and been excellent in goals.

This was a decent all round Salters performance. Alba had two shots on goal the whole game and Salters created many chances through decent football.  However we didn’t take our chances and so cannot complain at the final score line. However there are signs in the last couple of matches that Salters now have a bit of belief and rhythm to our play and we hope to carry this on against Boca next week.

Team: John Paget, Kris Murdoch (Ryan Ramsay), Stephen Crawford, Steven Illingworth, Darren Smith (Paul Kivlin), Mikey Thomson, Shane Thomson (David Jamieson), Stephen Brown, Paul Nelson, Richard Murray, Paul Milligan.