Match Detail

Salters grabbed another 3 points to keep up our good start to the season. Despite missing several key players and having to rush others back, we did enough to beat our bogey team from last year, Abbey Athletic.

Abbey took the lead after a pass out of defence was picked up by the Abbey forward who went through and squared for the other attacker to slot home. Salters got back into the game soon after, a through ball from Paul Milligan sent Paul Nelson through to fire low and hard into the corner of the net. Salters went ahead through the same combination, however this time Paul Nelson finished in spectacular style smashing the ball into the top corner when it seamed he was second favourite to get to the ball. Abbey equalised when another pass out from the back was intercepted by the forward who went straight through and scored, leaving John Paget helpless. Salters went ahead again soon after when Paul Nelson played Paul Milligan clean through to finish from the edge of the box. Salters went 4-2 up when Paul Milligan got his second from a free kick 18 yards out, blasting the ball through the wall and into the net. Paul Nelson completed his first half hat trick in only 20 minutes going through on goal again and making no mistake with the finish.

The second half was much tighter as Salters looked to close out the game. Salters went 6-2 up when good work down the right hand side from Richard Murray played Paul Milligan clean through on goal, Paul rounded the goalkeeper and rolled the ball into the net for his hat trick. Abbey never gave up and kept coming forward. They got a goal back late on when a long free-kick into the box was knocked down by the forward for the oncoming midfielder to blast home. Both Salters and Abbey had a few other decent chances and could have added to the score line however it ended Salters 6-3 Abbey.

It is clear this was not the most fluent Salters performance of the season so far. However we have learned from last season that we have to play a certain way against Abbey to get a result. Abbey have a huge team and used it well, playing the long ball to the big forwards and playing off it, as well as using the creative centre midfielders to spray the ball about. The three goals Salters conceded were a little bit sloppy and unlike us, however that aside we dealt with the threat well and defended excellently in the second half. Again we looked like we could score every time we get the ball under control and the threat Paul Nelson caused always had Abbey worried. Salters matched Abbey all over the pitch and took the chances we got, in the end that was the difference.

Pentland Thistle will provide another very hard test on Sunday; we must be ready once again to match them.

Best of luck to Abbey, they will do very well this season on the evidence of this match.

Team: John Paget, Kris Murdoch (Steven Faughnan), Jon Weir, Michael Jones, Darren Smith, Richard Murray (Paul Kivlin), Shane Thomson, Danny Watson (Stephen Brown), Mikey Thomson, Paul Nelson, Paul Milligan. Sub not used: Neil McDonald.