Edinburgh United 1-3 Glenrothes

Edinburgh United 1-3 Glenrothes
Saturday 16th November
1st Division Conference B
Match Report by Willie Drew

For the second time this season The Glens travelled to Paties Road for the game against Edinburgh United looking for revenge from the defeat in a cup tie earlier in the season.

Glens gave a debut to goalkeeper Ross Wortley on loan from Rosyth JFC.

First half
The game started at a frantic pace with the home side breaking with pace down the left wing but a timely tackle from Smart avoided any danger, on three minutes a shot from Kinnes was cleared off the line. Another minute later an effort from McLeod-Kay was tipped over the crossbar by Tufall. On six minutes Glens took the lead when an excellent run from L. Schiavone left a couple of defenders stranded and his pass found McLeod-Kay who made no mistake from ten yards. The Glens were moving the ball from side to side and causing the home defence all sorts of problems. inside a couple of minutes they could have increased their lead firstly Tufall made a fine save from a shot by C. Schiavone and then a header from S. McDonald was cleared off the line. On eighteen minutes a cross from C. Schiavone went straight across the face of the goal with no one on hand to take a gamble, a long range shot from McLeod-Kay was saved by Tufall, a minute later the keeper again came to the rescue when he pushed an effort from Martin round the post. On twenty three minutes the home side had there first effort on goal through Maughan which was wide of the goal. Glens conceded a foul twenty yards fron goal which was well defended. The home defence through the pressure they were under were conceding a number ot corner kicks and on twenty nine minutes from a corner the ball landed at the feet of A. McDonald who blasted the ball into the net. A minute later a shot from C. Schiavone struck the top of the crossbar, it was relentless pressure from The Glens and an excellent cross from Kinnes was just missed by Martin. The same player had a header saved by Tufall. An excellent first half from The Glens probably one of their best of the season with the icing on the cake of two excellent goals.

Second half.
Two minutes after the restart Martin beat the offside trap but once again Tufall came to the rescue for his team, a minute later Wortley looked as if he had received a bad head knock after colliding with Flynn and after some lengthy treatment he was able to continue. The game was taking the same pattern as the first half with The Glens winning a fair number of corner kicks. The home side were now starting to push a little bit more forward than they had in the first half. An excellcent tackle from Kinnes inside the eighteen yard box saved what could have been a dangerous situation. The same player at the other end had an effort saved by Tufall. On the hour mark for the only time in the game The Glens defence looked a little bit sloppy and allowed Scott room to shoot past Wortley. Two minutes later Glens could have regained there two goal advantage when a cross from the left was missed by Lane, an effort from McLeod-Kay struck the outside of the post, an excellent move down the left hand side was halted by a timely tackle from Robertson, a header from C. Schiavone was just over the bar. Russell then replaced Martin then a shot from Denton brought another fine save from Tuffall. The keeper again had to look sharp to save from Russell. McLeod-Kay came close with an effort just shaving the post. Lamont replaced C. Schiavone. On eighty three minutes Glens were awarded a penalty kick when McLeod-Kay was tripped inside the box, the same player got up and dusted himself down and slotted the ball home. Another effort from McLeod-Kay scraped the top of the crossbar, this was to be his last touch of the game to be replaced for the final minutes by Hynd.

Overall an excellent performance and a well earned three points. It was hard to pick a fault with any of the players but the Willie Drew Man of the Match for today’s game was Andy McDonald.

Glens: Wortley, Kinnes, Smart, S. McDonald, A.McDonald, Denton, L. Schiavone, Lane, Martin, C. Schiavone, McLeod-Kay
Subs: Duff, Miller, Hynd, Russell, Lamont, Watt

Edinbutgh United: Tufall, Robrtson, Brockie, Meikle, Guiney, Kerr, Coppolla, Murray, Scott, Flynn, Maughan
Subs: Hay, Lee, Spalding, Smith, McKenzie GK, Hanratty

The Managers Report

After the Leith game it was disappointing not to play last weekend but we’ve trained well we’ve brought in a new coach Paul Beveridge and he’s been working on a few tactical drills to help us with our overall game. It was a big game for us as the top 5 from second to sixth is very tight important not to lose We started brilliant getting on the ball from the back breaking the lines with our midfield and balls wide in behind we had so much attacking options it was a compliment to the way we were playing that I think Edinburgh changed their system 3 times to try and get a foot on the game after getting the 2 goals we just needed the third to kill the game their goalie made a couple of good saves we hit the bar had a few good chances but we were still comfortable at half time. Edinburgh as expected came out second half with a bit more purpose and put us under a bit more pressure, pushing more boys forward but we dug in we then had a couple of good chances that the goalie saved their goal came from a bit of carelessness from us but that didn’t unsteady us we just kept playing the subs came on and were really important for us as they kept the tempo of our game high and we got the pen to score the third which killed the game after the goal. We were disciplined, kept possession and seen the game out to a man the boys were great strong in defence creative in midfield and dangerous in attack great 3 points against a decent side back to back wins hopefully we can keep this level of consistency and really keep the pressure on the teams above us.
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