Weather freezes junior clubs out of action

Feb 23 2010 Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

THE weather again was the only winner as the heavy frost which had been in evidence throughout the week and had already convinced club groundsmen that the pitches wouldn’t have any chance of being playable for this week’s games.

Those assessments were confirmed when Saturday morning ground inspections officially declared the pitches at the grounds concerned to be unplayable. The teams that were due to play away from home saw their games suffer the same fate and it was another blank Saturday for all concerned.

This must surely be the longest spell of fixtures being cancelled the junior game has suffered in a very long time and not just in this area as most teams have in general only fulfilled two or at best three fixtures in the last 10 weeks.

Apart from the annoyance of the games being cancelled along with the rest of the problems it creates it is also doing serious damage to their finances in the shape of the gate drawings, half time draws and the tea huts and while they will obviously benefit from those when the games eventually get played, it doesn’t help in the short term.

There’s also been the added expense of hiring indoor facilities and all weather pitches for training when they couldn’t do so at our own grounds.

Kinnoull and Scone Thistle agreed to play a friendly at the McDiarmid Park all weather pitch after their respective games were called off.

Kinnoull took the lead in this game after six minutes when Gary Sweeney connected with a cross from Chris Webster to beat the keeper with a shot from close range.

They moved further ahead midway through the half when they were awarded a penalty for hand ball.

Gary Sweeney got his name on the scoresheet for a second time when he converted the spot kick.

Ten minutes later Scone pulled themselves back into the game with a spectacular strike. A clearance from the Kinnoull defence was met by Aly Vannet who was at least 25 yards from their goal.

Aly’s first timer flew into the top corner of the net.

Kinnoull restored their two goal lead in 55 minutes when Chris Anton met with a cross and beat the keeper with a header from the edge of the six yard box.

Anton increased the lead to 4–1 when he scored from a penalty in 70 minutes.

The final goal of the game came in the 82th minute.

Mark Duigan slide the ball to Jon Kelly who scored from inside the penalty box to make it 5–1.

The respective team manager Scott Brown and Derek Adam both felt it was a worthwhile exercise.

Luncarty manager Mark Christie has signed two players from East Stirling on delayed transfers they are full back Darren Wilcox and striker Jordan Brown this brings Mark’s signings since he arrived at Brownlands Park to 10 and there is every possibility that he will complete the signing of two more players later this week in his rebuilding process.

This is Mark’s first appointment as a manager, his previous experience has been in the youth development field and while he is still striving to find his feet he feels he is going in the right direction and enjoying it very much.

The players he has signed are integrating well with their new team mates who have been there since the start of the season and he feels once they have had the chance to gel better results will follow.

Mark is very pleased with the healthy turnouts at training which all the players seem to enjoy.

The Bleachers boss has made centre half James Ross available for transfer and all enquiries regarding the player should be directed to Mark at 07958032608.

Coupar Angus manager Barry Britton has been busy with the pen over the past week as he has added six new players to his squad.

They are Ian Muir goalkeeper, Gary O'Hara defender and Jordan Kelly striker, they have all been signed from East Stirling on delayed transfers.

His other signings are Craig Johnston from Forfar West End and Robbie George a young defender from Violet.

The experienced Aly Gallagher is a striker with both senior and junior experience but has recently been unattached and Barry could add another signing this week if negotiations go his way.

Blairgowrie, Perthshire’s sole remaining representative in the GA Cup if they can win this Saturdays second round tie against Hermes, will be at home again in the quarter finals against another north region side Lewis United.

Jeanfield Swifts have released midfield player Chris Dudek he is to join Fair City Amateurs.