Nomy Reid Football Ground, NESFA Bruce Lawson Memorial Cup, 4/6/24
Me 310, Wee Man 175
Faithlie United Football Club
The Wee Man said before bed last night, “i hope there is football tomorrow”. That will do me. With it being Tuesday too there would inevitably be numerous Welfares on the go. The choice for him was the Association Trophy final at Balmoral but it was immediately vetoed as “we have been there heaps”. Fair enough. The other option was Macduff v Boddam United at Canal Park. “Will the Spotty Bag Shop be open?” and when he found out it wouldn’t he kicked that into touch too. This taking us both to the third choice and a new one for both of us. No complaints there. There is also no complaints with the set up either. It’s a tidy place with a perfectly flat pitch, its got floodlights, and a running track which makes for a decent kick about. However on the 4th of June I don’t expect to be bulleted with hail stones or pished on with Icey cold rain or constantly abused by a bone chilling wind. I was still jeelt when I got back to Oldmeldrum. But aye……. summer football and all that shit.
With a division between the sides a pretty one sided affair was predicted, this aided by Mormond Thistle being top of League 1 and Faithlie in the middle of League 2. What we didnt expect was Mormond to be two to the good in pretty much as many minutes. They opened the scoring straight away when the broke down the right through Callum Buchan who’s cross was perfect, leaving Marc Watt to make no mistake from inside the six yard box. No sooner was it one, it was two when Charlie Scott went on a solo run cutting in from the left unleashing a powerful effort out of reach of Reid in the Faithlie goal. Wee Man at this point asked to change his score prediction but was told to do one. This despite my 0 v 4 looking like it would be dead in the water pretty sharpish too. But rules are rules. As Mormond started the game on fire the weather was not as hot as we were bombarded with hail stones after the second goal for around 5 minutes, this removing all heat from my underdressed person. Faithlie to be fair to them settled a bit and got into the game creating a couple of half chances but nothing to trouble Luke Norrie. The closest they came was when Caleb Howe struck a speculative effort that clearly picked up in the wind as it crashed off the bar. At the other end Mormond created more than just half chances but stand in Faithlie keeper Danny Reid (centre half by trade) kept the score down with a string of excellent saves from Scott, Maitland and Fraser, all exceptional stops keeping his team in it for the moment. But Sandy Maitland was to extend the lead before the break when he fired low into the bottom corner from the edge of the box. It looked all a bit too simple for the Strichen side. In amongst all this Faithlie’s Howe was to add a late entry for miss of the season when from two yards out he tried to chest a rebound in the goal but for the life of me I cannot fathom how he managed it, but he put it wide. Absolutely inexplicable.
HT 0 v 3
A bouncy kick about on the springs polyurethane running track ensued and it was here I realised how bad the wind was as it didn’t take much for the ball to catch in it. The sky was now blue but the wind was still piercing. Like the first half Mormond came out the traps fast in the second and after spurning a couple of early chances they were soon in again to make it 4 when sub Owen Sutherland took advantage of some flat footed defending from Faithlie as he got in behind and slotted low past Reid from 16 yards despite having his shirt tugged. It was all Mormond from here and it was soon 0 v 5 when Charlie Scott secured a brace when he cut into the box and poked a shot across the goal and into the bottom corner. A tidy finish. The game could have and should have hit double figures in the scoring but for some great keeping and pretty good defending from Faithlie at times, despite letting in 5. Mormond were constantly at the home side in the second and didn’t quite manage to muster up the rewards they may have got on another night. It wasnt all doom and gloom for Faithlie as they did grab a consolation. This from the penalty spot after Howe was seemingly upended. Granted Wee Man and I were at the other end of the ground but we both couldn’t see what it was given for . It looked a terrible, sclaffed effort from Howe and he stayed down with a bit a hurt pride, then to everyone’s surprise the ref pointed at the spot. Matthew Garden sent Norrie the wrong way from 12 yards completing the scoring for the night. The action wasn’t over as there was a wee bit of a tickling match between Garden and his opposite number, Fraser which saw the Mormond man raise his hands to the Faithlie goal scorers face. The ref was straight in to diffuse it by showing both number sevens a yellow. Good refereeing in my eyes. Then from good refereeing he blotted his copy book by denying Mormond as stonewall a penalty as you will see when the red 14(not sure of name) was clearly chopped down as he was away to shoot. How it was not given I can only imagine was because of what the score was. Mormond were not to perturbed and seemed to laugh it off as they headed to the next round of the cup.
4 more and the NESFA is complete.
Entrance – Free
Attendance – 12 at one point but many in cars avoiding the elements
Pie – N/A
Pint-N/A
Score Prediction – Me 0 v 4, Wee Man 0 v 5
Seasons Score Predictions Total – Me 2 v 2 Wee Man
FITBAWBAG 