MATCH REPORT : Tollcross Giants v BLUE 27th March

Tollcross Giants 4 - 2 Blues

Blues took on the might of the Tollcross Giants at Meggetland.  Keith takes up the story...

A biting westerly wind at Meggetland on a bright morning. The Tollcross team lived up to their reputation with a P4/5 mix having some big lads. The initial BLUE line up was Joseph (GK), Murdo & Joe (DF) Hamish, Jude & Alex (M-F) and Sam as striker with Coll, Robert & Roddy on the bench.

The game started brightly with good play from both sides, a good run from Sam being the highlight. In 5 minutes a good break started with Alex winning the ball in midfield before passing inside to Jude. Jude carried the ball forward before playing a return pass to Alex who ran in to the box from the left and slipped the ball past the goalkeeper. 0-1 BLUE.

The BLUE defence was doing well at this stage with Murdo and Joe putting in strong tackles and clearing their lines well.  A quick throw from Hamish led to a ball being passed from Sam and Jude across to Alex whose cross from the left came off the far post before being put out for a corner. Sam also hit the post shortly afterwards following a good run from Hamish with the Blues well on top at this stage. Tollcross fought back, however, and won a few corners which were well defended before Joseph had his first save to make.

Our 3 substitutions on 10 mins changed the team with Murdo, Joe and Alex going off. We were under a bit of pressure and Joseph made another good save before he was beaten in 12 minutes. 1-1.

Our defence was struggling to cope with the Tollcross forwards and Roddy and Robert made some brave tackles but we were finding it harder to get out of our half. We did get forward again with Hamish having a good shot well saved following a pass from Jude.

Shortly afterwards Joseph had another save to make and Tollcross were dominating. Joseph was beaten by a very strong shot into the top right corner. 2-1 GIANTS.

We went in at half time 1-2 down but had hopes that with the wind behind it could be turned around.

Col took over in goal for H2 with Hamish, Sam and Joseph going onto the subs bench. Col was quickly into action and made a good save early on. Alex was fed a pass down the left wing by Robert and went on a great run beating 3 defenders before unleasing a strong drive that the keeper did well to turn round the post. The corner was cleared but we were more in the game and soon forced another corner following good play by Joe and Jude. From this one Tollcross broke quickly and some quick passing left our defence exposed. An initial block by Roddy fell to another Tollcross striker and was struck home. 3-1 GIANTS.

Tollcross now had their tails up and despite some strong tackling by Robert, Roddy and Murdo a nother goal followed a couple of minutes later. This was another shot from well out which hit the left hand post and rolled along the line and went just over the line off the right hand post before Col could get to it. 4-1 GIANTS.

Although 4-1 down we still felt well in the game and the last 12 minutes saw some sustained pressure from Sciennes. Jude hit the bar with a great right foot shot. There was also one strong shot from Hamish which the keeper could only half block and went behind him. Joseph and Sam were on to it in a flash but the ball spun off Joseph just wide.

Tollcross were still very fast and dangerous on the break and Coll made another fine save, Another run from Alex led to a shot deflected wide but we were getting little joy from our many corners. Another Tollcross break was foiled by a great interception by Murdo supported by Joe.

It looked as if we were going to get no more reward for our efforts but in the last minute a ggod tackle, run and shot from Hamish was parried by the keeper and Joseph calmy put away the rebound. 4-2 GIANTS.

The ref called time shortly afterwards.  A creditable performance against a big, strong team. Having 3 subs to change probably disrupted the shape of the team a bit.