ac milanda afc

AC Milanda 1 Club Athletic 2 - Netherpollok

Milanda's involvement in Cup competition was ended for the season after a disappointing encounter with fellow Division B team Club Athletic. Milanda boss McMillan made some tactical changes to Milanda's line up and gave Soutar a man marking role on CA's No. 11, a player who had caused Milanda a lot of problems in a league game earlier in the season and this saw Milanda lining up in a 3-5-2 formation.

The game kicked off in ideal footballing conditions and almost from the start it was obvious the game was not going to be a classic. It's not often the GDSML produces a game with so few goal scoring opportunities but despite attempts by both sides genuine chances were at a premium.

During a fairly nondescript first half Milanda did get in behind the CA defence a couple of times but the final ball failed to land on a Milanda foot or head. Coyle had a long range effort that would have caused the CA goalkeeper problems had it hit the target but instead it flew a couple of yards past his left hand post.

Club Athletic were also trying to get at the Milanda defence mainly down the left hand side where Soutar had a thankless task trying to contain the CA's speedy No 11 who was clearly CA's danger man and the player they were relying on to unlock the Milanda defence. This he duly did after about 30mins when a ball broke perfectly for the CA winger to knock past Soutar and take it into the box. His low cross to the back post found a CA forward lurking and it was an easy task to prod home from 5 yards. Milanda claimed offside but it was a hard one to call.

Half time saw the score remain 1-0 and Milanda boss McMillan used half time to try and get more commitment from his players. His talk seemed to have the desired effect as Milanda started the second half looking the more hungry team and got their reward with an equaliser 5 mins after the restart.

An early ball forward from Williamson saw the ball break to Coyle who looked likely to score but a great save from the keeper kept him out fortunately the rebound fell kindly to Fitzpatrick who brought Milanda level with a calm left foot finish. At this point Milanda started to look the more dangerous team although CA were dangerous on the break but Preston, Early and Duncan were giving them little time and space.

Reid had a great chance for Milanda but his right foot shot just went the wrong side of the left handpost. Milanda's pressure won them a number of second half corners but it couldn't be converted into goals.

As the half wore on the game became more evenly balanced and CA began to put Milanda under more pressure. It looked as if the next goal would be the winner and so it turned out. The CA dangerman beat a couple of players on the wing and broke infield. His run was halted after a great sliding tackle from Coyle and the ball looked to be heading back to the Milanda keeper but an attempted interception from centre half Preston unfortuantely knocked the ball into the path of a CA forward who was caught slightly off guard and had his shot superbly saved when he should have scored. Luckily for him the ball came straight back to him and he finsihed it off at the second attempt.

It was a hard one to take for Milanda who had held their own up to that point. Defender Preston felt it was his fault but it was his only error on a day where he made tackle after tackle and lost next to nothing in the air.

Milanda tried hard to find the goal that would take the tie to a replay. Williamson was replaced by MacKay and Grant replaced Duncan near the end but despite Milanda putting pressure on the CA defence they held out to go into the draw for the third round.

In the end it was a very tight game that could have gone either way. Milanda never translated their pressure into goals when they were on top. Again fitness was called into question in the dressing room after the game and some fair points were raised. The only people who can do anything about fitness are the players themselves I think we all need to take a look at ourselves and stop kidding ourselves we're doing enough. Most of us probably thought dropping down a division meant things were going to be easy this season but it's blatantly clear it's not and it isn't going to get any easier.

Website man of the match – Despite putting his hand up for the winning goal Scott Preston had an outstanding game and along with Early and Duncan kept the CA attack fairly quiet. It's good to see him on the park rather than off it and he deserves this week's man of the match nomination. Special mention goes to Soapy for sticking to his man marking task. Not a job any of us would have relished.