Halkirk FC - Reports, Results & Photos - Season 2008-2009

Eain Mackintosh Cup - Round 1 - 26/05/08
Halkirk 1 - 1 Acks - (Halkirk win 5-4 on penalties)

Poop

We progress into the second round of Maca's Cup with a hard earned victory against Acks, which went all the way to a penalty shoot out. Neillie had to make some enforced changes to the side as once again the squad was short of five players.

We started the game well though and went ahead inside the opening five minutes. Spike, in a new forward role, chased a through ball and got there the same time as their keeper. The ball broke loose to Bainer at the edge of the box and he kept his composure to expertly volley the ball into the net.

The early goal should've inspired the lads to a great performance and a convincing win but it had the opposite effect as we went on to struggle for the rest of the first half.

The pitch was hard and bumpy but it looked like there were too many players in red & black suffering from the "Monday Night Blues".

The visitors deservedly levelled the match about halfway through the first period and the scores remained that way until the break.

Half Time 1 - 1

We were much better in the second half and should've won the game easily as we dominated possession but were once again missing that cutting edge in front of goal. We even failed to take advantage of having an extra man as they had a man sent off with about ten minutes remaining.

Stevie C, Luke & Charlie all had good chances to score although Spike should've won the game with a free header from six yards after an excellent cross from Gavin.

The closest we came was from a corner kick, Stevie C rose at the back post to win a header and played it back across the face of goal where Kitten met it with a header of his own that looked goalbound. It was cleared away, although Kitten was adamant that it had crossed the line before the defender could get to it. The referee disagreed though and the game went into extra time.

Full Time 1 -1

We absolutely pummelled them in extra time but couldn't find a way past their keeper who was in inspired form. He produced several good saves to deny Stevie, Charlie & Kitten while Stevie and Gavin both should have done better with chances that fell to them around the edge of the box but both lacked that little bit of composure and went for power rather than precision and both pulled their efforts well wide.

Our final effort was a 25 yarder from new signing Foubie, which the keeper held comfortably.

And so on to the penalty shoot out when Poop proved himself to be the hero.  He expertly saved their third spot kick low to his left and that proved enough as we had a 100% success rate from 12 yards. Adamson, Charlie, Muttley and Gavin all left the keeper with no chance which meant it was down to Gunny to claim the glory and he made no mistake as he found the bottom corner to book our place in the next round.

A fully deserved victory over the piece but one that we made extremely hard work of. We should've comfortably won the tie inside the 90 minutes without having to go through the nervous shoot-out.  We've got to get more clinical and ruthless in front of goal but this will hopefully come if we continue to put the effort and commitment in.

Go Wildcat's!!

report provided by Liam Bremner

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