Date: 08-Nov-08
Competition: League
Scorers: Yusef Patel, William McKean, Paul Rollo (2)
Man of the Match: Alex Dick
Match Report:
Hamilton Harvest travelled to Springburn Astroturf to take on Greenview on Saturday. With 4 players missing from last weeks victory over Findlaydale Harvest lined up in a 4-4-2 formation with Shug in goals, right to left in defence was Daryl, Hammy, Gizzy & Aiky, right to left in midfield was Yusef, Paul, Alex & Hawky and leading the attack was Shansky & William, Gareth returned to the squad and started the game on the bench.
Harvest started the quicker of the two teams and took the lead in the 5^th minute, good work in the midfield by Alex saw him advance to the edge of the Greenview area, where he fired a shot at goal which the keeper got down well to save, however he could only parry the ball and Yusef followed up and smashed the ball in to the net form close range. Greenview than had a chance to grab an equalizer when a long ball through the middle fell to Neil McLeod, with Hammy in hot pursuit Neil bore down on goal, Shug was quick of his line to narrow the angle and blocked the strikers shot with his legs. Harvest then increased their lead in the 29^th minute, William won the ball in midfield and fed it to Daryl on the right, Daryl fired a low cross in to the box which was cut out at the back post by the Greenview defender, however the defenders block resulted in the ball being played back across the face of goal, as the keeper tried to collect the ball he spilled it in to the path of William who tapped the ball in to the empty net from 2 yards. Greenview struggled to trouble the Harvest defence as most of the balls forward were too long and skipped through to Shug in the Harvest goal. With no further action Harvest went in at half time with a deserved 2-0 lead.
Greenview started the 2^nd half on the offensive as they tried to find a way back in to the game and pulled a goal back in the 53^rd minute. A long ball played over the top of the Harvest defence was chased by Stephen Armstrong and as Shug came rushing off his goal line Stephen got to the ball first and lifted the ball over Shug from the edge of the area and the ball dropped in to the corner of the net. Harvest didn’t let their heads go down and regained their 2 goal lead in the 60^th minute with a well worked goal. Hammy won the ball just inside the Greenview half, he lifted the ball over the Greenview midfielders head to Hawky, Hawky played the ball to Shanksy on the left who knocked the ball to William just inside the Greenview penalty area, William had time to turn and square the ball to Paul who was unmarked, Paul got the ball out of his feet, knocked it to the right of the on coming defender and rifled his shot past the keeper in to the net from 12 yards to make it 3-1. To their credit Greenview kept pressing and got a goal back when a free kick on the Harvest left was flighted in to the area and Russell Gray climbed above Yusef at the back post to head the ball past Shug from close range. Greenview were re-energized by this and scored an equalizer in the 75^th minute, the ball was played down the Harvest left, Neil McLeod won the ball on the touchline, passed the ball inside to Steven Grant on the edge of the Harvest area, he played the ball back to Ally Gray who squared the ball across the 18 yard box to Stephen Armstrong whose deflected shot wrong footed Shug in the Harvest goal and he could do nothing as the ball flew past him in to the net to make the score 3-3. Harvest then made a change when Gareth came on to replace Yusef on the right hand side of midfield. The Harvest heads could have went down at this point after surrendering a 2 goal lead but with the pace Harvest had up front they were always likely to cause Greenview problems and that’s just what they done. Good work by the midfield and forwards won Harvest a corner on the right in the 80^th minute, Shanksy went across to take it and flighted a delightful ball to the back post where Paul rose unmarked to head the ball in to the net to make the score 4-3. Greenview pressed forward in the final 10 minutes looking for an equalizer but the Harvest defence mopped up any danger and the game finished 4-3 to Harvest.
Well done today guys, despite a few changes from last week and losing 3 goals we played well and dominated the game for long periods. Well done to Yusef, William & Paul who got their names on the score sheet and to Alex who deservedly won the man of the match award after a great shift in midfield. This victory moves us up to 3^rd in the league so let’s keep up the good work and hopefully we can build on this next week against Anniesland.