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    Halkirk FC - Reports, Results & Photos - Season 2008-2009
League Division 1 - 09/07/08
A hard earned point against the league leaders from the end of the road but in truth it was a game we should've won. Injury and work commitments meant Nige had to make 3 enforced changes to the side that did so well against the same opposition on Monday night with Duck, Rusty & Adamson replacing Gunny, Spike and Gavin. We did take a little bit of time to settle due to these changes and the visitors enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges. But, got a foothold on the game though after about ten minutes and went onto dominate the majority of the first half. Our midfield were dominating theirs with the central trio of Stevie C, Blocks & Kitten all enjoying the 3 v 2 numerical advantage we had in there. Bainer was also back on his game after being slightly subdued in Monday night's game. We almost opened the scoring after 15 minutes when Adamson tried his luck from distance, but was extremely unlucky and saw his lob rebound off the bar with the keeper stranded. It wasn't long before we did take the lead though. Rusty rather scuffed a corner kick, but Martin Bain did well to get an effort in at goal but it struck the frame of the goal. The loose ball fell to Adamson and he then hit the bar, before the ball landed at Kitten's feet and he made no mistake from 8 yards, smashing the ball high into the roof of the net. We didn't rest on this lead, continued to attack and JOG's frustration became more and more apparent as they started appealing to the officials for decisions. Just when it was looking like we would go into the break one up, disaster struck. Martin Bain did really well with a tackle in the box to put the ball out for a corner which the neutral linesman awarded, but to everyone in the grounds disbelief (including JOG players) the referee pointed to the spot after being fooled by an act of simulation by the attacker who took two steps after being tackled before throwing himself to the ground in the hope of conning the ref. The dive was so blatant that when the whistle went, a lot of people thought that he was going to be booked for diving but the ref fell for it and awarded the penalty. Poop made a diving save to his right to stop the pen but the rebound fell straight to the taker who placed the ball into the empty net before any inrushing defenders could get near him. Half Time 1 - 1
The half time break was just about long enough for us to regroup and calm down after the injustice of the penalty award and we more than matched the top of the table side in a second half that was full of incident, strong challenges and goal scoring chances. We should've taken the lead following another Rusty corner but the ball flashed agonisingly across the face of the goal, the loose ball fell to Stevie C but he was at an awkward angle and couldn't get his shot on target. The captain was then denied by a fine save when it looked like his long range shot was heading into the top corner and then Blocks tried his luck from distance a couple of times. He then showed good skill out on the right flank and his cross to the back post was met by Adamson but his looping header dropped just over the bar. It wasn't all one way traffic though, Poop did well to save a free kick and they almost scored with a couple of headers that went just wide of the post. We could've secured the three points with a couple of chances in the final ten minutes but Bainer's left foot curler was saved and Tarpot was unable to latch onto Blocksy's through ball. This proved to be the end on the action and both teams had to settle for a point a piece. An extremely hard earned point against the league leaders who are a physical side and a very hard team to play against. With the enforced changes to the team we probably would've taken the point before the game but the way it panned out it was a disappointed dressing room afterwards as it felt like two points dropped due to the chances missed and also the way that they "won" the penalty to get back on level terms. We can't dwell on the referee's mistake though and we're certainly not the first team to suffer from a dubious decision, so we just need to take the positives from this performance and move on starting with a vital home game against the Acks on Monday night. Go Wildcat's!! report provided by Liam Bremner
photos above provided by James Gunn photography End-of-Document | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
