It was set up as a promotion decider but it served only as a wake up call to Milanda who chose one of the season's most important games to deliver one of their worst displays of the season. There can't be anybody in the Milanda team that thought they got pass marks on Saturday apart from maybe Fawns in the Milanda goal who despite losing 6 goals couldn't be blamed for any of them. If Milanda were to achieve promotion, facing teams like Islay would be the norm rather than the exception and if anyone thinks we could compete after that display needs serious help.
The game did start brightly for Milanda and they probably had the best of the opening 10/15 mins and were unlucky to not to go ahead when a Murray shot came back off the post. Islay began to get a foothold in the game and took the lead when a backpost corner was headed into the net by a completely unmarked Islay player. Milanda players looked around for someone to blame but no one had picked the player up as he arrived late in the box so no scapegoat was found. Milanda never recovered from this point and found themselves 2 down soon after. Milanda failed to cut out a crossfield ball and Islay's left winger broke clear. Despite attempts to catch him he was able to get into the box and get a shot away that fawns manage to block but was unable to hold. Unfortunately the ball fell to an Islay player who had an easy tap in to make it two.
Milanda rallied slightly after this and Coyle hit the side netting after one of Milanda's better moves of the game but Milanda were second to almost every ball all over the pitch. half time arrived and it was hoped Milanda could regroup and turn the tables in the second half.
It wasn't to be and if anything the the second half was worse than the first. Islay put the game beyond Milanda's reach when scoring another avoidable goal. A shy into the box was missed by everyone at the front post and it bounced its way through to the back where Williamson was slow to react which allowed the man he was marking to header into an empty net. Number four arrived shortly after when the Milanda defence failed to clear and the player who scored Islay's number three bagged himself a second.
Milanda surprised everybody by getting a goal back when a Murray corner managed to find its way into the net via an Isaly defender. It wasn't much to celebrate and normal service was resumed when Islay took advantage of poor Milanda play to break away and make it 5. Just before the final whistle the rout was complete when number 6 was dispatched and Milanda were thankfully saved any more embarrassment as the ref signaled the end of the game.
Despite Milanda's poor performance it should be noted that Islay played well and if they continue to play the way they did on Saturday should do well in the first division although i don't expect they'll get as many easy games as they got on Saturday.
For Milanda it was as bad if not worse than the Deanpark cup game in January. Coming on the back of a great fighting display against Club Athletic the week before it was hard to believe how different this performance was. The basics of passing, tackling, tracking back, marking all seemed to have been forgotten. It also should be mentioned that criticism of your team mates serves no real purpose when everybody is playing poorly. If you must criticise make it constructive and encourage your team mates. We were all to blame for Saturday not the defence, midfield or forwards. All of us. So let's try and think before we moan.
Website man of the match – Cancelled.