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

League Division 1 - 28/07/08
John O'Groats 2 - 1 Halkirk

Luke

Our undefeated run comes to an end as we taste defeat to the newly crowned Eain Mackintosh cup winners.

This was always going to be a tough game, played on a poor pitch on the Monday night after the Halkirk Games weekend. The fact that holidays, injuries and suspensions also denied us of 6 players made the task even harder.

We did actually make a reasonable start to the game, although it was obvious that most of us were a little flat.

We then had a nightmare period just after the ten minute mark when we conceded two goals in 2 minutes.

The first was a deflected free kick which left Poop with no chance and the second was a poor goal to lose from a defensive point of view.

It took a little time to recover but we gradually started working our way back and had a great chance when good work by Banksy, out on the left, saw him tee up Rusty for a good chance but he was unable to find the empty net.

We did get the goal we needed before half time when Luke beat a couple of challenges and his shot across the keeper found the bottom corner.

Half Time 2 - 1

The second half was very poor but it wasn't easy to play good football on a pitch which is the worst surface in the county.

There were very few chances in the game although Poop did have one fine save late on when he dived low to his left to keep out a long range effort.

We probably could've come back on level terms with Tarpot, Bainer & Kitten all having half chances but the best chance of the night fell to Luke when he got through down the inside right channel but his touch took him wider than he would've liked, his shot from the angle was rather weak and failed to trouble their keeper.

The game ended on a sour note when frustration at the poor refereeing performance boiled over and Tarpot, having been booked in the first half for a late tackle, received a second yellow for dissent and was sent off.

A disappointing defeat but probably not too unexpected in the circumstances.  We did battle away but John O'Groats is never an easy, or enjoyable, place to play and it was just a relief that the result wasn't too important for us!!!

Only one more game to go now and that's the season over for another year.

Go Wildcat's!!

report provided by Liam Bremner

End-of-Document