Junior football update

Apr 19 2011 Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

KINNOULL are fighting for their Premier survival and they are certainly pulling out all the stops in their efforts to beat the drop.

On Saturday, they collected three extremely valuable points, for a second successive week, with a terrific two one away win over championship chasing Glenrothes.

The Glens are being tipped by a number of pundits as likely to finish at the top of the table or at the very least in the runners up spot, and if this were to happen it would mean promotion to the Super League, so it was quite a scalp for manager Gavin Price and his players.

Glenrothes opened in a sprightly mood but their attacks were dealt with confidently by a very resolute defence and in 25 minutes Kinnoull, who had looked very dangerous on the break, took the lead when their striker Gary Fraser ran on to a through ball and carried it forward to inside the penalty box from where he smashed it past the keeper for a well taken goal.

Ten minutes later Kinnoull were dealt a blow when their central defender Dave Hutton suffered a leg injury and couldn’t continue. Gavin Price came off the bench to take over from him.

This was an unaccustomed role for the player/boss but he proved his versatility by turning in a sterling performance and he was the super sub when he came up for and met a Daryn Smith corner and swept into the back of the net from a few yards out.

Glenrothes pulled one back five minutes later when John McRae hit in a cross from the left which seemed to be caught by the wind and sailed over everybody and landed in the far corner of the net.

Both sides had chances after this but the 2–1 scoreline in Kinnoull’s favour remained intact.

Jeanfield Swifts, if they were nursing any lingering hopes of retaining their already very outside hopes of staying in the championship race, certainly had them finally blown away when they lost 2–0 at home to Lochgelly Albert on Saturday.

Swifts have only themselves to blame for this defeat as they had by far the lions share of the chances especially in the second half and while there was a modicum of bad luck that some of them didn’t get across the goal line their finishing was not up to the mark of their leading up play.

Swifts came close to opening the scoring with little more than a minute played when a through ball sent Kevin Fowler racing in on goal and from the edge of the penalty box he cracked the ball over the bar.

Lochgelly were awarded a penalty in 16 minutes after a late challenge brought down Steve Brown.

He took the resultant spot kick himself and fired it past keeper Mark Mitchell to put his side ahead.

Swifts strived hard to get back on level terms and they had what looked like goalbound shots from John Anderson and Steve McManus blocked on the goal line in quick succession and with the interval just seconds away Steve McManus dived to connect with a cross only to see his header go inches over the bar.

In 57 minutes there was an amazing scrimmage in the Lochgelly goalmouth when John Anderson met with a cross.

His header was blocked on the goal line but the scrambled clearance hit the big striker and it looked as if the rebound was going to land in the back of the net but was again cleared as it was about to cross the goal line.

Swifts were virtually camped in the Lochgelly half, Jamie Reilly cut in from the right leaving a few opponents in his wake and just as he was about to pull the trigger on the edge of the penalty box he was deprived of the opportunity by a last ditch tackle from a defender.

Lochgelly in one of their sporadic raids on the Swifts goal had a chance in 68 minutes when a cross from their left found their striker Lee Celentano unmarked about 12 yards from the goal but much to Swifts relief he failed to connect.

Swifts returned to the attack after this let off and Sandy Ross had a header from a corner blocked on the goal line by the keepers foot.

Bryan Scott and Steve McManus had good chances after this but failed to put them away and with the game in its final minute and with most of the Swifts team laying siege to the Lochgelly goal.

A clearance from their defence caught out the Swifts and was picked up by John McDonald who ran on to hit the ball past Mark Mitchell to make it 2–0 for his side and clinch the points for them in the process.

Scone Thistle were guests of Newburgh and they had their best away win of the season as they went on to win by 5–2 after coming from behind twice.

Newburgh went in front after 14 minutes when a ball was played to Mark Laing who went on to beat the Scone keeper from inside the penalty box.

Scone went chasing the equaliser and in 24 minutes they were rewarded when Andy Smith headed the ball on to Andy Jamieson who beat the keeper from the six yard box.

Ten minutes later the Fifers restored their lead when a quick throw in saw the ball land with Mike Sullivan who was unmarked.

He swung the ball into the goal area where it was met by Mark Laing, who for a second time, swept it past the Scone keeper from a few yards out and it was 2–1 for the Fifers.

Thistle shrugged off this further setback and in 42 minutes they were back on level terms and it was with a goal very similar to their first one. Thistle were attacking the Fifers goal and a flicked header from Andy Smith found Jordan Brown a few yards from the goal and he beat the keeper from a few yards out.

The second half had only been in operation for a minute and Thistle went ahead for the first time when a ball was played through to Steven Gardiner who warded off a couple of challenges and beat the keeper from inside the penalty box.

Thistle increased their lead to 4–2 in 69 minutes when a Newburgh defender was penalised for a hand ball offence and Steven Gardiner blasted the ball past the keeper from the resultant spot kick for his second goal of the game.

Thistle put the icing on the cake when they won a corner out on the left which was taken by Jordan Brown and was met by Max Smith at the far post from where he beat the keeper to make it 5–1.

Newburgh’s Greg Allan was red carded in the final minute after a foul on a Thistle player.

Bankfoot’s long unbeaten league run ended in their away game against Kirkcaldy YM. This was a very dour encounter with not a lot of goalmouth incidents at either end.

There was only one goal in this Denfield Park encounter and it was in the YMs favour and it confirmed their second top of the table position.

The goal that won the points was scored midway through the first half when the YM won a free kick which was played into the Bankies penalty box where it took a rather fortuitous bounce and it fell to Craig Low who promptly dispatched the ball past keeper Mike Whyte from close range.

Luncarty took the lead in their game at Rosyth. John McLean was their scorer in 18 minutes but by the time the interval arrived they were trailing 4–1.

This was increased to 5–1 early in the second half .

The Bleachers were reduced to 10 men in 74 minutes when Jason Henderson was red carded for depriving an opponent of a goal scoring opportunity and it was after this that they conceded four further goals to go down by 9–1 although they had much more of the game than the score suggests.

Coupar Angus were also away from home they were visitors to Arbroath SC and lost to the Seaton Park outfit by 4–1.

Coupar were well in the game up to the interval at which time they trailed by 1–0, Steve McPhee was the SC scorer in the 30th minute. McPhee went on to complete his hat trick with goals in 50 and 70 minutes.

Kevin Smith reduced the lee way for Coupar in 75 but within a matter of minutes Paul Clark completed the scoring with goal number four for SC.

MIDWEEK FIXTURES: Tomorrow night (Wednesday), all games kick off at 6.45pm: Premier League – Kinnoull v Broughty Athletic.

Central League – Bankfoot Athletic v Scone Thistle.

North League – Coupar Angus v Kirrie Thistle.