ac milanda afc

MILANDA made it two wins out of two against their old bogey team with a nervy performance that had players and supporters alike desperate to hear the final whistle. After fighting back from a goal down to be 3-1 ahead, Milanda conceded again in the final 15 minutes and that made for a tense finale. But they held on and deserve tremendous credit for taking the relegation battle to the last day against Garnethill Rovers.

With some key players having to call off due to work commitments, Milanda had to shuffle the pack for the umpteenth time this season and bring in trialist Steve Neilson up front. A bright start was made but then came another setback when Gerry Evans suffered a cut above his eye in an accidental clash with team-mate Thomas Addison. Allander kindly helped get him patched up and he carried on looking like Rab C Nesbitt (and playing like Scott Nisbet, according to Brian Dunn).

Then came another blow. Allander took the lead when Chris Preston could only parry a free-kick and one of the visiting forwards pounced to slam in the loose ball. With Preston hobbling around his goal due to a groin injury, it was decided to reshuffle again, putting substitute Mark Russell into midfield, Addison to right-back and Craig Fawns into goal.

Milanda weren’t behind for long. A Paul Moray throw wasn’t properly cleared and when the ball broke to Paul Ross with his back to goal he went for the spectacular overhead kick and found the net. It was the same combination when Milanda went ahead in the 37th minute. Again the ball bobbled in the box after a Moray throw and Ross finally smacked it low into the corner.

There was a feeling at half-time there would be more goals in the game and so it proved. Milanda took a 3-1 lead after 65 minutes from a Martin Coyle penalty after referee David Ross had spotted Neilson being held back in the box. The skipper made an immaculate job of the kick to give his team some breathing space. A counter-attack by Moray should have led to No.4 but after doing all the hard work he somehow lost possession and the stretched Allander defence escaped.

Allander were still very much in the match and Fawns made a couple of good saves before poor marking at a corner in the 75th minute allowed one of the Allander players to cut the deficit with a header. Allander also hit the bar a couple of times and had a penalty claim rejected before the referee’s whistle allowed Milanda to relax.

MOTM: Not as polished a performance as the one against Kilpatrick Thistle but three welcome points and the man who did most to clinch them, two-goal Paul Ross, was the top man.