It started well but eventually East Stirlingshire’s class came to the fore and saw the Blues well beaten in front of a good Friday night crowd..
Unfortunately, the media team were understaffed on the night due to prior engagements but the legend that is Rob Waite (@THE66POW) was present and most of the following is, with his very kind permission, lifted from his superb blog. Enjoy…
Sam Cable and Johnny Pugh both had shooting opportunities early on, with the former firing wide, while the latter’s effort deflected wide for a corner.
The visitors went close when Peter MacDonald flicked a backwards header over the Blues crossbar from Mark Millar’s pinpoint free kick. Millar proved to be a thorn in Frickley’s side for most of the night, both in open play and through an array of deft touches at set pieces.
Craig Spink’s side claimed the lead after sixteen minutes, when Pugh’s half volley was charged down and when the ball ran loose towards Cable, his low shot squeezed under the Shire keeper Jamie Barclay and found its way into the back of the net.
MacDonald went close again, nodding the ball just past the wrong side of the upright from Millar’s left wing corner, but the same combination combined again in the twenty seventh minute and the Lowland League side were on level terms, as MacDonald headed into the bottom left hand corner of the net from Millar’s long dipping free kick from out on the right hand side of midfield.
Five minutes before the interval, Frickley restored their lead, when Luke Hogg’s left wing corner was helped on by Jack Burton and forced over the line by Jack McMenemy. HT 2-1.
If the alarm bells hadn’t already begun to sound, as regards the link-up play between MacDonald and Millar before the break, not to mention the distribution of Jordan Tapping, who was to all intents and purposes, East Stirlingshire’s engine room, then the visitors statement of intent, right from the start of the second half must’ve served as a warning, when Bobby Barr broke forward at pace, to create a one against one shoot-out against the Blues keeper, Tom Jackson, whose brave save denied Barr on this occasion, but moments later, the Shire number eleven netted the visitors second goal, via a deflection off of Jack Harrison, that gave Jackson just that fraction too much to do.
Jamie Dishington was a whisker away from giving East Stirlingshire the lead, but Jackson thwarted the visitors again, moments before Harrison had to make a clearance off the line from Barr’s goal-bound knock.
The visitors scored a third when Martin Orr delivered an exquisite long pass down the flank to MacDonald, who forced his way into the Blue area before squaring the ball to Millar, who rolled the ball into the net from close range.
Soon after, Craig Spink made a raft of substitutions, giving his whole squad some match time.
Before the new arrivals had even had a chance to assume their positions on the field of play. the Shire scored again, when Barr crashed a shot that ricocheted off of the substitute keeper Lewis Bowring and the ball was ‘snaffled up’ by MacDonald who stroked it into the now unguarded net.
Yet another forward move from the visitors broke down on the edge of the Blues area and Shaun Carrington moved across sharply to make a clearance, but as he put his foot through the ball in an attempt to turn defence into attack, his kick crashed against Nicky Low and rebounded back towards the Frickley goal, where it looped over Bowring’s head and beyond his grasp.
The Shire were still in the hunt for goals and Bowring did well to get his body behind a well struck effort by Evan Horne from the edge of the area.
But there was little that an unsighted Bowring could do to keep out Dishington’s shot through a crowd of legs, after MacDonald had rolled a square pass to him, with eight minutes left to play, that saw East Stirlingshire rounded off an impressive second half display with their sixth goal of the night. FT 2-6.
There wasn’t much to choose between the two sides in the first half, with plenty of positives for the Blues, but, with all due respect, in truth, both sides probably got what they deserved in the second half.
Back to my own ramblings now but if you want to read Rob’s full, unabridged version then head over to his Twitter for the link.
To sum up, you can be sure that the Blues will have learnt lessons and gained further fitness from this game against our good friends from north of the border.
WEBMASTER MOTM – after consultation with Chris, our media man on the ground, I can reliably inform you that Haze, Sam Cable, Jack Mc and Johnny Pugh all deserve a special mention for playing some nice football going forwards. However, Chris has awarded the Glitterball to the keeper, Tom Jackson, who was Pat Jennings-esque as his stops with his legs kept us in the game for a fair while, a measure of a decent keeper for sure. Congrats Sir.
There was a good turnout for this Friday night footballing fare, we thank you all for your support. And, of course, we go again next Saturday against Matlock Town, 3pm ko. Hope to see you all there.
