ac milanda afc

AC Milanda 5 Hamilton Wanderers 4 (HT (2-2)

Milanda like to do things the hard way. A match that on paper Milanda should win easily turned out to be anything but easy. Complacency might have been an an issue but this was soon thrown out the window as Wanderers were clearly up for it and hoping to spring a surprise.

Milanda started poorly and struggled to get any momentum. Wanderers on the other hand were stringing some nice passing moves together and were giving Milanda's backline a number of problems. They took a deserved lead when a corner was swung in and their No7. rose unchallenged at the back to power a header past Walker. Accusing glances were the order of the day for Milanda as no one admitted to this being their man.

Milanda awoke from their slumber and realised they had a game on their hands and made inroads into the Wanderers half. Reid had a half chance went put through on the edge of the box but his shot was high and wide.

Reid did have hand in the equalising goal when he sent Peter Johnstone free down the left and his pass found his brother in the box who turned his marker before placing a curling right foot shot into the net. This spurred Milanda on and a superb passing move between Coyle and Early ended with Williamson watching his left foot shot being turned round the post by the Wanderers keeper. From the resultant corner Milanda took the lead in fortunate circumstances. Walker sent in a corner that Coyle was first to and his header smacked off the underside of the bar but as it came out it hit the keeper on the back of the legs and ended up in f the net. This should have set Milanda up for a comfortable victory but Wanderers stormed back to equalise when a free kick was misjudged by Walker and another free header was punished.

Milanda boss McMillan was not a happy man at half time and he expected better in the second half. Not sure how many were listening but Milanda found themselves a goal down after allowing the Wanderers centre forward to run 40 yards without a challenge before he hit a screamer of a shot past Walker at his near post. Things got worse as Wanderers scored number four when Walker got down well to block a shot from the edge of the box but was unfortunate that the ball fell straight back to the forward and this time he dispatched it under Walker's body. Not sure either team could believe the score at this point and for another 5mins it looked as if Wanderers would increase their lead.

Finally Milanda settled and got back into the game. A sweeping move from one end of the pitch the other saw Milanda reduce the deficit. Martin Johnstone did some fine defensive work on the edge of the Milanda box and fed the ball to Early who took the ball forward a few yards before hitting a great through ball to Coyle who nearly tore the net down with his finish. From this moment on it was all Milanda but stout defending and a lack of any luck around goal still saw Milanda struggle for the equaliser.

Milanda may not have had much luck in the first part of the 2nd half but they got a huge chunk of it in the lead up to the equaliser. Reid picked up a ball on the right wing but looked to have let it run too far and out of play but as the Wanderers player stood and claimed Reid carried on and sent a cross into the box that Walker hit first time into the net. Wanderers complained to the ref to no avail but they did commit the cardinal sin by not playing to the whistle.

After this there was only going to be one winner and Milanda piled forward at every opportunity and were rewarded when Coyle took the ball for a walk on the right, beat a couple of men before hitting a perfect cross into the box and Martin Johnstone was there to glance a header into the net to give Milanda, what looked at one stage to be a very unlikely victory.

Wanderers were a beaten team by this point and although Milanda didn't add to their total they eventually ran out comfortable winners and can take credit for fighting their way back into the game when they really looked down and out.

MOTM - Think we'll give it to Mr Happy this week. Scored one, made one and tried to claim the own goal but was influential the whole game. The last MOTM award for the season goes to Coyle.