Date: 14-Mar-09
Competition: Atholl Cup Quarter Final
Scorers: Graham McDonald, Ally Gray
Man of the Match: N/A
Match Report:
Hamilton Harvest took a break from league business as they took on Carluke in the Quarter Final of the Atholl Cup at the Palace Grounds on Saturday. With quite a few injuries, once again Harvest had to shuffle the pack and lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation. With Dave Lowe picking up an injury in last weeks game Shug was in goals, right to left in defence was Yusef, Hammy, Jaffa & Hawky, sitting just in front of the back 4 were Robert & Omar, the three in front of them were Shanksy on the left, Alex in the middle and Gizzy on the right and Ally Gray made a guest appearance up front as the lone striker. Daryl & Aiky were on the bench. Carluke had beaten Harvest 5-1 in the league 2 weeks ago so Harvest knew they would have to improve on the last performance in order to get anything out of the game, but with a somewhat depleted squad this was going to be difficult.
The game kicked off in difficult conditions with a strong swirling wind and a very heavy pitch making things difficult for both teams, however it wasn’t long before Carluke had their first opportunity, a ball a through ball from midfield found the left winger of Carluke advance in to the box but Shug was quick from his goal to block the shot and the ball was cleared for a corner. It was from this corner that Carluke took the lead, the corner was fired in low, and as Jaffa slid in at the near post to clear the danger the ball skipped up of his boot on to the shin of Omar who could do nothing to prevent the ball deflecting in to the net. A bit of a flukey goal which the defence and keeper could do nothing about. Carluke then increased their lead, another ball forward found the feet of the Carluke left winger and as Shug came out to narrow the angle he knocked the ball past him and as the ball trickled toward the goal a Carluke midfielder rushed in and knocked the ball in to the net. Despite being 2-0 down Harvest were playing some neat passing football in what was difficult windy conditions and got back in to the game with a well taken goal by Gizzy. A diagonal ball from left to right found Gizzy just inside the Carluke area and has the ball dropped he side footed it over the goalkeeper in to the net. Carluke then had an opportunity to regain their 2 goal lead, the ball was played forward to a Carluke striker on the 18 yard line, as he took a touch to get the ball out of his feet, Hawky made a great challenge to dispossessed the striker but the ball broke to another Carluke striker and as he tried to curl his shot in to the bottom corner Shug got down well and got a hand to the shot to turn it round the post. Harvest then equalized, the ball was played forward to Ally Gray and he turned and advanced in on goal and as the keeper came out he prodded the ball past him in to the bottom corner of the net, despite not playing for a while it seems that Ally has not lost that scoring touch. No further notable action in the first half meant that both teams went in level at the break.
The second half started with Harvest on the attack as they tried to gain the lead and knock Carluke of their stride, however it was Carluke who regained the lead when a corner wasn’t properly cleared and fell to a Carluke midfielder on the opposite by line, despite various attempts to close the ball down the midfielder managed to chip the ball to the back post to the head of a team mate who headed the ball down and over the line despite Gizzy’s attempts to clear the danger, there may have been a little suspicion that the ball didn’t make it over the goal line but the referee awarded the goal. Harvest continued to play some decent football but any chances that were created were snuffed out by the Carluke defence. Just when Harvest looked to be getting back in to the game Carluke regained their 2 goal advantage when Hawky was dispossessed about 20 yards from goal and as the striker hit the shot Shug made a good save, however the ball deflected in to the path of the onrushing Carluke midfielder who knocked the ball in to the net from 12 yards. The game was then ended as contest when Carluke scored a dubious 5^th goal, the ball was picked up in the midfield and played forward to he 18 yard box to the striker, he then turned and played the ball forward to a team mate who was clearly offside as he was the only player in the 18 yard box and as Shug advanced from his goal he fired the ball past him in to the bottom corner of the net. That was the scoring finished and shortly later the referee blew the final whistle and the game ended 5-2 and it was Carluke who advanced to the semi-final. Unlucky today guys we done well in the first half and competed well with a team who have not tasted defeat all season and I know it was tough at times as we weren’t only competing with a good team but were also competing with a referee who never kept up with play and made a few bad decisions. We can take some heart from a good first half performance and we need to take that in to the up and coming matches and as we return to league business next week we need to stop giving away sloppy goals and start being more ruthless when we have goal scoring opportunities. I’m sure once we get that long awaited win the confidence will return and we can start picking up some points.