ac milanda afc

Under-strength Milanda left Erskine with three points but they had to work extremely hard to get them. With regulars Kevin Williamson, Ross Early, Martin Coyle, Paul Murray and top scorer Mark Reid all unavailable for one reason or another, the team had to be severely rejigged, especially up front where a new combination of Craig Fawns and Paul Duncan was tried.

The versatile Fonzie and Scouser caused Deanpark a number of problems in the first half as Milanda, backed by a strong wind, dominated in attacking terms. However, the goals were provided by supporting midfielders. The opener came when Fonzie picked up the ball on the right and squared it perfectly across for Marc McColgan to fire home from close range. Ginger had done well to burst forward when he saw the opportunity coming and that was to be a feature of his play throughout the 90 minutes. Goal number two followed fairly quickly and followed some good build-up work by Davie Crawford, Scott Grant and Scouser. However, it was Fonzie who produced the final pass to send Jim Binnie in on goal and he showed composure before beating the Deanpark keeper.

It was looking promising at this stage but, not for the first time this season, Milanda shot themselves in the foot by conceding a needless goal. Andy Scott should have cleared a fairly harmless ball on the edge of the box but made a hash of it and allowed one of the home strikers to cash in and beat Steve Walker. But Milanda were back on the goal trail again when Ginger finished off another good move with a cool finish from Scouser's pass. From then until half-time it was one-way traffic as Milanda tried to build a bigger advantage for the inevitale onslaught in the second period. Binnie blasted a decent opening off target, Scott Preston had a header saved from a pinpoint Thomas Addison cross and Adda himself fired a long-range effort wide.

As expected, Deanpark had more of the play after the turnaround but they didn't create too much in the way of danger. They didn't have to, though, because Milanda went into charitable mode again and gifted them a second goal. A long ball could have been dealt with comfortably by Grant but his attempted header back to the keeper didn't work out as planned and one of the Deanpark forwards bounced to reduce the leeway.

Milanda were still making chancces on the break but the finishing was poor and so the fourth goal that would have provided a cushion never really looked like coming. Ginger broke through and blasted over, Addison failed to convert a superb chance from less than a yard and also shot straight at the keeper from a difficult angle when he had two team-mates screaming for a cutback. Binnie's control let him down when he had a chance to double his personal tally, although what looked like a push on him by the keeper during the same incident might have brought a penalty. Referee Dan Boyle decided there was nothing wrong with the challenge.

In between times there were one or two scary moments around the Milanda goal but some good goalkeeping by Ted allied to strong defending by Grant, Crawford and Dave O'Neill. In the end, the team held on and there was a collective sigh of relief on the sidelines. The result was certainly better than the performance but the wind and the heavy pitch didn't make things easy for a makeshift team and, on reflection, it was a good morning's work.

MOTM everyone worked hard and there were no failures. It was especially good to see Scott and Grant put their mistakes behind them, keep their heads up and contribute in both defence and attack. The midfield did a fine job collectively and Fonzie and Scouser, although paired together for the first time, linked well. However, the acccolade must go to Ginger who never stopped fighting for the cause and scored two vital goals.