Match Detail

Salters were looking to progress to our second semi final of the season against St Vincents. Having had two extremely tight games against them this season we were expecting another close battle.

It was a fairly tight opening half with two teams having a fair share of possession. However it was Salters that looked more likely to score and we did get ahead after a fine finish from a near impossible angle from Niall Malone. Salters went 2-0 up after a throw in was flicked on by Paul Milligan and Stephen Brown slid in to volley home a brilliant finish. Paul Milligan made it 3-0 after picking up a great pass by Michael Jones and volleying past the keeper from 18 yards. Paul Milligan had another chance but fired miles over the bar from 18 yards. Soon after St Vincents got a goal back breaking down the right hand side and a shot deflected off the Salters midfielder and in. St Vincents had a lot of the ball and created a couple of chances, however Salters defended brilliantly to keep the score at 3-1 half time.

Salters never looked like loosing the match despite not playing all that well. St Vincents had plenty of the ball but it was in areas that were not threatening and apart from a header about 10 yards out that went over the bar there wasn’t a lot of genuine goal threat. Salters went up the other end and killed the game off, Paul Milligan passed the ball out to Kevin Robinson who turned the defender and sent a lovely left foot shot high into the far corner. Later Salters went 5-1 up through the most unlikely of sources. Dani Muir on one of his regular raids up the right wing from full back broke through a couple of challenges and placed his shot in the bottom corner of the net much to the delight of his team mates who celebrated with him like he had scored the winning goal in a cup final! Much deserved reward for Dani who was outstanding the whole game. That rounded up the scoring at 5-1.

After four years of struggling to get anywhere in the cups Salters have made two cup semi finals in two weeks! We didn’t play at our best and St Vincents are hard done by a 5-1 scoreline. However just getting through to the next round was the main thing and Salters reward is a massive local derby against Dalkeith Town for a place in the final.

Next week Salters take on Oxgangs in the league and we welcome back Steven Duncan, Kevin Cornwall and Steven Faughnan as well as player of the year Paul Nelson to give us a full squad for the first time this whole season! Combined with the signing of two new quality players from Aberdeen University and Easthouses and the return of Richard Murray to full fitness means the squad is getting bigger and better at exactly the right time of the season.

Well done everyone on getting to another semi final, what a day that’s going to be!

Team: John Paget, Dani Muir, Steven Illingworth, Ryan Newton, Darren Smith, Blair Mathewson (Richard Murray), Stephen Brown, Michael Jones, David Jamieson (Shane Thomson), Niall Malone (Kevin Robinson) and Paul Milligan.