Match Detail

Salters worst performance in some time meant it was two points dropped away to Duddingston. The first half display was something that hasn’t been seen for a while. We were awful at times and made it very hard for ourselves. Although we improved in the second half we still couldn’t get the winner on a day best forgotten.

Salters got off to the worst possible start. Niall Malone pulled out of the starting 11 at the last minute due to injury and Player of the Year Paul Nelson limping off with knee damage in the first 5 minutes which forced us into a change of shape and we had players playing out of position. Duddingston took the lead through a long throw into the area; Shane Thomson lost his man to leave the Duddingston player with a simple header home from 6 yards. Salters got level after a great ball from Michael Jones put Paul Milligan through and Paul placed the ball into the far corner of the net from 18 yards. Duddingston again went ahead, the forward turning from a throw in to run on and score after a scramble in the box. Again Salters got back level. Paul Milligan running through on goal and was wiped out in the box by the Duddingston keeper. Stone wall penalty and sending off, however for some reason the goalkeeper got away with a yellow card. Paul Milligan stepped up to slot the ball home. Duddingston went ahead again, the forward going down their left hand side after a long punt up field before calmly slotting the ball in the back post. Shortly after Darren Smith's rash challenge gave Duddingston a stone wall penalty; however John Paget in the Salters goal came to our rescue with an excellent save. There were a few other chances here and there however the half ended 3-2 to Duddy.

The second half was better from Salters. However it was Duddy that got the first goal. A great chipped cross from the winger deep to the back post was headed home by the forward. After this is was mostly Salters pressure for the rest of the game. We got another goal back soon after, again Paul Milligan going through on goal, after his initial effort was saved he rounded the defender and smashed the ball home for his hat trick. Paul got his forth soon after. Great work down the right hand side from Blair Mathewson who ran half the length of the pitch before delivering a sensational cross to the back door, Paul Milligan chesting the ball down then slotted home. At 4-4 the game was there to be won and Salters went for it however we couldn’t get the winner. The game ended 4-4.

This was a step back for Salters at times. We didn’t do the basics well at all and looked like 11 guys who hadn’t met before, particularly in the first half. We made Duddingston look good at times and all four goals were very preventable. We made it hard for ourselves today and it’s very fortunate we were not facing one of the top premier league teams or we might have been embarrassed. To make it worse we suffered some bad injuries and Paul Nelson looks like he could miss a lot of matches which is a huge blow.

We must forget this performance straight away. We are a better team than we showed and we can’t let it effect us to much. We have had a decent start to the league season and hopefully this was just one of those weeks when we didn’t play well. It’s pleasing we kept battling back and got a point, however it’s a game we should have won and we must learn from it.

Team: John Paget, Dani Muir (Kevin Cornwall), Steven Illingworth, Ryan Newton, Darren Smith, Blair Mathewson, Shane Thomson (Steven Duncan), Michael Jones, Kris Murdoch, Paul Nelson (Stephen Brown), Paul Milligan.