Date: 08-May-10
Competition: League
Scorers: Paul Rollo, Alex Dick
Man of the Match: Hugh Edwards
Match Report:

Hamilton Harvest took on Queens Park at Blantyre on Saturday. Harvest lined up in a 4-4-2 formation with Shug in goals, right to left in defence was Wullie, Steph, Hawky & Omar, right to left in midfield was Hammy, John, Davy & Scott with Paul & Alex up front. Rab, William, Kyle & Aiky were on the bench.

 

Queens Park took the game to Harvest and dominated the early stages and had the first opportunity at goal when a cross from the Harvest left found the head of the midfielder who headed the ball back across Shug who done well to get a hand to the ball and keep the Harvest goal in tact. Queens Park kept pressing forward and were first to every ball, they took the lead their dominance deserved when the ball was played forward to the edge of the Harvest area, the Queens Park midfielder seemed to have an eternity to get the ball out of his feet and shoot at goal, Shug blocked the ball with his feet but as it spun up in the air and in to the middle of the 18 yard box another Queens player was on hand to head the ball in to the net to make it 1-0. Queens Park were causing Harvest all kinds of problems in the first half and increased their lead when a long ball up field  caught out the Harvest defence and with the Queens striker one on one with the Harvest keeper he blasted the ball high in to the net to make it 2-0. Harvest did register a few efforts on goals in the first half the closest they came to a goal was a header from Alex which went narrowly by the post. Queens Park again were pressing forward and another long ball down the left deceived Steph and as the Queens player hit the bye line he noticed that Shug had took a step away from his post to anticipate the cut back and fired a low shot at the near post but Shug got down well and got a strong hand to the ball to turn it round the post to keep Harvest in the game. Queens Park couldn’t increase their lead during the remainder of the half and Harvest couldn’t find that killer pass to unlock the Queens defence and the score remained 2-0 at half time.

 

After a few words at half time Harvest came out in the second half a changed team and took the game to Queens Park, Harvest grabbed a goal within the first few minutes of the second half when they won a free kick midway inside their own half, Shug launched a high ball forward which seemed to cause confusion in the Queens Park defence and Paul was on hand to head the ball in to the net to make it 2-1. Harvest continued to press forward but couldn’t find a way through a stubborn Queens defence. Harvest had to be alert as Queens Park were dangerous on the break but the defence was more organised in the second half and mopped up any danger. Harvest pressed and pressed looking for an equalizer but despite their dominance in the second half it was Queens Park who increased their lead when a corner from the Harvest left was floated in to the box and a Queens player rose highest to head the ball in to the top corner. Harvest kept pressing looking for a way back in to the game and this left spaces at the back and Queens almost capitalized on this when another long ball fell behind the defence and the Queens striker latched on to the ball and was faced with another one on one situation but on this occasion Shug came out on top as he blocked the shot with his legs. With 10 minutes remaining Harvest got back in to the game when a cross field pass from Hammy was controlled by David who laid the ball in to the path of Alex who had advance in to the penalty area and his first time shot nestled in the bottom corner. Harvest pushed relentlessly in the final 10 minutes looking for an equalizer and it almost came when Hammy whipped in a free kick from the left which found the head of David but the header flashed past the post with the keeper stranded. As the game drew to a close Harvest were denied a stone wall penalty after David was kicked in the face as the ball bounced up to him about 4 yards inside the penalty box, the referee did blow the whistle but strangely pulled the ball back and awarded Harvest a free kick on the edge of the area. Harvest couldn’t take advantage of the free kick and Queens Park held out to win 3-2.

 

Unlucky today guys, it really was a game of 2 halves with Queens Park dominating the first half and Harvest dominating the second. How we never got a penalty at the end I’ll never know but that’s not how we lost today, we can’t afford to give teams 2 goals of a start before we start playing. Well done to Paul and Alex who got the goals and to Shug who was awarded the man of the match award. Let’s forget about the first half performance and take the positives from the second in to our next game. Have a good weekend, God Bless.