MATCH REPORT
Date : 2nd May 2023
Opposition : Edinburgh South
Venue : Away
Scorers : Craig Bell
Booked : Adam Deans
Sent Off : None
Attendance : 40
Referee : Tommi Kerr
Team Lineup :
Niall Frampton
Joao Vieira
Ctaig Heath
Evan Smith
Rhys Dixon
Jay Atkinson
Drew Cummings
Jack Forster
Regan Graham
Craig Bell
Jack Cummings
Subs :
Adam Deans on for Jack Cummings 77 mins
Melvin Sebastian on for Jay Atkinson 51 mins
Kieran Cromarty on for Joao Vieira 51 mins
Match Report :
A close and high tempo game at Paties Road Stadium but the result meant Tweedmouth failed to beat Edinburgh South in any of three meetings this season which averaged six goals per game. Ultimately, the outcome of this one hinged on South’s second goal scored seconds from the half time whistle.
Edinburgh kicked off and Ian Ballantyne forced Rangers’ keeper Niall Frampton into an early save. Joao Vieira came across field to avert danger by winning a one on one duel for the ball with one of the hosts’ best, Reece Ferguson.
Jack Cummings, winner of Tweedmouth’s opening corner, sent a great ball through to Craig Bell who struck it well but didn’t score. He did though in the 22nd minute. South didn’t get a look in, or rather a foot in, as a dazzling piece of quick-fire inter-passing pierced open their defence and Bell, fourth man in the play, rounded off the move with a superb finish.
The home team regularly opted for long, high balls including from the boot of goalkeeper Ross Gilpin. A consequence of the ball being in the air so often was that at various stages of the game, Craig Heath and Jack Forster of Tweedmouth and Edinburgh’s William Scott required sideline attention for head knocks. But ‘Yogi’, the hosts’ talismanic no.9, was also a threat with the ball at his feet and just three minutes after Rangers’ goal, he knocked in an equaliser.
Rhys Dixon’s block stopped Scott getting another, the ball quickly being taken in the other direction by Bell but, under pressure from defenders, he couldn’t repeat his earlier feat.
When the ball seemed to hang around deep inside away territory for an age with no decent clearance in sight, Stuart Martin pounced to make it 2-1.
Tweedmouth fought hard for a second half equaliser with chances coming the way of both Jack Cummings and Bell whilst Heath glanced a Drew Cummings’ free kick outside the post.
Edinburgh were still in the hunt for a third goal. Scott missed early on and David Stewart wasted a pass from Scott taking South’s love of high balls to extremes by sending an absolute belter way over Frampton’s bar. The introduction of Kieran Cromarty helped fortify Rangers’ defensive efforts and despite former Berwick Ranger Ross Brady’s attempts through balls up the left side, the home team could not engineer another breakthrough.
Tweedmouth are due in Edinburgh again this Saturday ( May 6th ) to face Craigroyston, one of five more matches this month from which they will be hoping to pick up points to consolidate their mid table position in the East of Scotland League Second Division.