Date: 17-Jan-09
Competition: League
Scorers: Graham Shanks, Davy McKean (2)
Man of the Match: Alex Dick
Match Report:
Hamilton Harvest drew 3-3 with Westwood BB at the Palace grounds on Saturday in their first game of 2009. Harvest lined up in a 4-4-2 formation with Dave Lowe in goals, right to left in defence was Shug, Hammy, Gizzy & Hawky, right to left in midfield was Yos, Paul, Omar & Shanksy and leading the attack was Davy & Alex. This was Harvest’s first game since the 29^th November 2008 and the lack of match practice was evident in the first few seconds, a wayward pass from Paul to Hammy saw the ball drop over Hammy’s head to the feet of the Westwood striker, however Dave Lowe made himself big and pulled off a fabulous one handed save at the feet of the striker to prevent Harvest going 1-0 down in the first few seconds. Harvest were clearly struggling to get to grips with the game in the early stages as passes went a stray time and time again. It was no surprise that Westwood took the lead in the 20^th minute, a long diagonal ball was played from right to left over Shug’s head to the feet of the Westwood winger, with Shug in hot pursuit the winger ran in to the box and as Dave Lowe came out to narrow the angle he squared the ball in to the centre to a team mate who had the easy task of tapping the ball in to the net from a few yards out to give Westwood a 1-0 lead. Westwood had a further 2 clear cut chance to increase their lead, but couldn’t capitalise on either with Dave Lowe doing well to smother a shot after a goal mouth scramble and the Westwood defender heading the ball against the bar from 2 yards out when it seemed easier to score. These scares jolted Harvest in to action and they started to come in to the game more as their passing improved. It wasn’t long before Harvest grabbed an equalizer, a good ball out of defence on the left presented Shanksy with a run in at goal, he had the pace to leave the defender for dead and when the Westwood keeper came out he fired his shot under the keepers body in to the far corner to make it 1-1. A couple of other half chances presented themselves to both teams but neither could team could add to the score line and both teams went in at half time at 1-1.
The second half started with Harvest on the front foot and with the wind and sun at their backs the Harvest strikers were causing the Westwood defenders some problems. A 50-50 challenge in the middle of the park by Omar was not well received by the Westwood players and after a lot of pushing from both teams things eventually calmed down and the game was able to proceed, however this seemed to unsettle the Westwood players and Harvest took the lead shortly afterwards. Harvest won a throw in on the left which Shanksy quickly took and threw the ball to Alex, he turned inside and rifled in a fierce shot which the keeper could only parry up the way and Davy was on hand to head the ball in to the empty net. Harvest were now in the ascendancy and scored a 3^rd goal just a couple of minutes later when a long kick out by Davy Lowe bounced over the Westwood Defenders head, Davy latched on to the loose ball and bore down on goal, as the keeper came out Davy calmly rounded him and slotted the ball in to the net to make it 3-1. With 30 minutes still remaining Harvest had a lot of hard work still to do as Westwood were a dangerous team going forward. Westwood were pressing forward looking for a way back in to the game but the Harvest defence stood firm to thwart every attack thrown at them. Harvest had a couple of chance to increase their lead by hitting Westwood on the break, Shanksy was presented with a 1 on 1 situation but fired his shot straight at the keeper and on another occasion Alex was bearing down on goal and was brought down just outside the box, in what was a clear foul, however with the referee so far behind the play he deemed the challenge acceptable and allowed the game to continue much to the relief of the Westwood defender who could have easily been sent off for a professional foul. Westwood changed their shape in a bid to get back in to the game, but all from Harvest were digging deep to keep the score at 3-1. With 2 minutes left Harvest couldn’t contain Westwood any more and they pulled a goal back, with the ball bobbling about in the Harvest half no one could get their foot on to it to clear the danger and the ball broke to the Westwood midfielder who moved the ball forward and fired the ball through a ruck of players from 20 yards and with Dave unsighted the ball flew past him into the net. With the game in to stoppage time Westwood continued to press for the equalizer and they won a corner with just seconds remaining, as the corner was swung in it looked as if the ball had gone out behind the goal and came back in to play, the referee failed to see this and the ball was flicked on to the back post where a Westwood player had got free and from tight angle managed to thrash the ball through the crowded box in to the net to make the score 3-3 and grab his team a point. That literally was the last kick of the ball as Harvest re-started the game the referee blew the final whistle.
Well played today guys after a slow start we came in to the game more and played well for the majority of the 2^nd half and really should have won, it was unfortunate that we couldn’t hold out for those last few minutes. Well done to Shanksy & Davy who got their names on the score sheet and well done to Alex who deservedly got the man of the match award. Now we’ve had a bit of match practice let’s hope next week’s game beats the Scottish weather and we can take the positives from this game and hopefully we can start to climb the table again. We have a tough fixture next week against last years league winners Avendale so we’ll really need to be on our toes from the 1^st minute.