ac milanda afc

MILANDA had to come out tops in a shootout to progress to the second round of the GDSML Cup. With the teams locked at 1-1 after 90 minutes, they went straight to penalties and Milanda won that battle 3-1 thanks mainly to three superb saves by Craig Fawns. Lee Colvin, Fawns himself and substitute Scott Grant scored Milanda's first three spot-kicks and although fellow sub Kevin Greghan saw his effort saved, Columba then watched as the home No.1 keep out their third kick on the trot and it was all over.

Milanda had made a late substitution to ensure that Grant, one of their regular penalty marksmen, was on the field but Columba went one better and switched keepers, sending on veteran defender David Blakely to replace Daniel Kaczmarczyk. Kaczmarczyk was not amused and, bare chested, walked about the pitch for a while protesting to anyone who would listen that he was quite capable of saving penalty kicks before disappearing into the pavilion.

There wasn't a lot between the teams over the 90 minutes, although Milanda just had the edge on clear-cut openings and were denied on a couple of occasions by the woodwork. Martin Johnstone had a half-chance early on after the keeper had spilled a Marc McColgan cross but the club's top scorer couldn't gain proper control of the ball to get a shot away.
Gerry Evans came close from an Andy Scott free-kick and then Lee Colvin headed a McColgan corner off target.

But it was Columba who got their noses in front when Milanda were caught too square and David McGuire powered through the middle of the defence to steer the ball away from Fawns.

Milanda's passing improved in the second period and that provided Martin Coyle with a couple of shooting chances, the first of them being too straight at the keeper and the second finishing narrowly wide. The equaliser duly arrived just after the hour. A free-kick taken by Fawns was head-flicked on by Evans to Johnstone who tucked the ball into the corner of the net past the exposed keeper.

That spraked a surge for the winner. Coyle fired powerfully wide from a Johnstone pass and then Grehan hit the keeper's left-hand post with a well-struck free-kick. With time running out, Grehan fired against the post once more and fellow substitute Brian Traynor blasted the loose ball towards the moon. Fortunately, his team-mates – well, most of them – were more accurate from the penalty spot.

MOM: Goals win games but saves win shootouts, so the award this week goes to Craig Fawns.