03/11/07 K.O. 13.45 League
Musselburgh made one change from the team that won 7 – 1 at Dundonald with the welcome return of midfielder Paul Currie after a long injury. The match started in bright sunshine and both teams looking smart, Musselburgh in all blue and Vale Of Clyde in all red in front of a good crowd. Both teams took their time settling in with the first half littered with free kicks most of them poorly taken or well defended. Musselburgh’s midfield was on top with an Impressive display of linkup between the two Pauls, Tansey and Currie. The best move of the half came on the half hour. A deep free kick from Mitchell was controlled well by king into the path of Kelly but his shot went just over. Neither keeper had much to do with McManus and Mitchell dealing with the long ball and Crooks and Wilson cutting up the Burgh’s passing game. The only other event was a tussle between John Crooks the Vales captain and CJ for which both were yellow carded. At half time 0 – 0 was the score with both teams lacking ideas.
The second half took a similar pattern, corners for both teams ending only in a scramble with keepers staying on their lines. The first real save came on the hour mark with Paul Thomson finding the home keeper to sharp for his shot. Wes Mitchell was added to the yellow card list although the home defense played very well and looked in control. Chris King found space on the edge of the box and only a deflection off Kerr saved a certain goal. The resulting corner came to nothing. Then came the turning point in the game, a great move from the visitors ended with McNamee finding Thomson in space, he charged in on goal and sent in a great shot which somehow was saved by Ronnie McPherson. That save was at an important time. The brilliant Currie was replaced by Andy Porteous and the game looked to be heading for the first 0 – 0 at Olivebank for ten years. Then on 85 minutes came the breakthrough. Paul Tansey picking the ball up on the half way line took on 6 Vale players on his way into the box before sending an unstoppable shot past Keenan in goal. Even the visitors were applauding a truly brilliant goal. With only 5 minutes left Musselburgh could see the third round and an upset in sight and that seemed to distract them as with plenty of chances to clear Vale equalized through Ryan McGregor finishing a sweeping move. As predicted before the match set pieces would be a deciding factor and that proved the case as a free kick 25 yards out was curled round the wall by Chris King and found the back of the net to put Musselburgh 2 – 1 up. A fantastic free kick which deserved to win any game. Then followed more madness a second yellow for Vale sub Mark Gannon just when his team needed him. Musselburgh brought on the injured Johnny Bain to strengthen the defense but couldn’t stop another equalizer. This time a long ball flicked on to Thomson and he ran in and found the top corner of the net. Amazingly another second yellow just after Vale scored went to Sinclair possibly for over celebrating. Just as we thought a replay was on the cards Musselburgh were awarded a corner and to be fair everyone went up, the keeper missed it and Johnny Bain bulleted a header to send the crowd wild. Still time for big CJ to see another yellow and an early bath but it didn’t matter as the referee called time shortly after.
For Vale Of Clyde who didn’t play as well as they can, its only their third defeat in 20 matches, they can now concentrate on winning their league and the bigger prize of Super league entry which I am sure they will complete. The best of luck for the rest of their season. The referee who, in his last 2 games has sent off 6 players booked 12 and seen 13 goals, had a good game.
Musselburgh now must concentrate on next week’s game against Forfar who will be equally as tough as today’s opponents. It was a gritty display and proves that they can compete with strong teams. Well done and hope we get a home draw!
Musselburgh: McPherson, Johnston, Quinn, Mitchell, McManus, Murphy, Currie, Kelly, King, CJ, Tansey Subs: Munro, Hawkins, Porteous, Bain, Polowj
Vale Of Clyde: Keenan, Kerr, McKenzie, Wilson, Crooks, Sinclair, Mackin, McGregor, Thomson, McLaughlin, McNamee
Photos: Liam Kelly Video: Ryan Kelly
Mitchell, CJ,
CJ
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