Match Detail

After an excellent pre-season build up Salters were looking forward to getting the league campaign underway with a tough home tie against Duddingston Athletic. Salters played 8 pre-season friendlies in 6 weeks so that we were fit and organised for the start of the season, and despite a slow opening 20 minutes, Salters showed that the preparation has paid off as we comfortably took the 3 points.

Salters got off to a dream start. Within 5 minutes of the kick off an excellent through ball from midfield sent Paul Milligan clean through, he calmly placed the ball past the goalkeeper to make it 1-0. However Duddingston were playing well at this point and causing Salters some problems as we sat off them and let them have easy possession. They got an equaliser after a long throw in was met on the 6 yard line by the forward who headed home. Duddingston were looking dangerous and Salters looked nervous. Duddingston had a couple of efforts they should have done better with. However after the 20 minute mark Salters stepped up a gear. We got closer to Duddingston and shut them down quicker all over the park and when we had possession we looked like we would score every time. Salters went 2-1 up through Paul Nelson: some excellent football in the centre eventually led to Stephen Crawford playing a through ball to Paul Nelson who calmly beat the goalkeeper. Salters went 3-1 up after another excellent defence splitting pass saw Paul Milligan again calmly roll the ball past the keeper and into the net. Next Paul Nelson broke down the left hand side and squared to Richard Murray who slotted home with ease. Paul Nelson completed the scoring in the first half, Richard Murray unselfishly cutting the ball back inside the box to leave Nelly with a tap in. There were other chances to score, in particular Paul Nelson missing from 10 yards out, in the middle of goal with no goalkeeper to beat: Nelly did his best to top Stephen Brown's pre-season howler against Longstone. Paul Milligan was denied by the goalkeeper and Stephen Crawford hit the bar from 25 yards. Half time Salters 5-1 Duddingston.

Salters started the second half exactly how we finished the first. Straight from kick off a through ball to Paul Nelson who controlled and shot low and hard into the far corner. Paul Nelson got his forth of the game, with a near identical goal, again getting in behind and firing low and hard in to the far corner. Salters were all over the game at this point and playing some good football. We were creating chance after chance and the confidence was flowing. The best goal of the game came next, excellent built up involving 3 or 4 players eventually led to Michael Jones squaring to Paul Milligan who lobbed the goalkeeper with a header. Excellent build up all round. Paul Milligan got his forth goal of the game late on, collecting a knock down from a corner at the back post and smashing the ball in the back of the net from a tight angle. Again there were several other chances including Paul Nelson going close, Mikey Thomson skinning the full back and being denied by an excellent save from the Duddingston goalkeeper and Paul Kivlin going close when he was clean through. However the full time score ended Salters 9-1 Duddingston.

Overall Salters can be very happy with the score and performance. For 20 minutes in the first half we looked nervous and rushed things while letting Duddingston have plenty of possession. However after this period we dominated the entire game. Some decent football was played all round and once again we defended everything that Duddingston had to throw at us. There is still a lot to work on and things we should be doing better, however a 9-1 victory in our opening game against one of the stronger teams in the league is just about as perfect a start as we could have hoped for.

Next Abbey Athletic, the team that beat us easily three times last season. A very hard task, however we go into the game with high confidence and with the added bonus of having a few players back from holidays.

Well done Salters!

Team: John Paget, Kris Murdoch (Dani Muir), Ryan Newton, Michael Jones, Darren Smith, Richard Murray (Jon Weir), Shane Thomson, Mikey Thomson (Paul Kivlin), Stephen Crawford, Paul Nelson, Paul Milligan.