MATCH REPORT
Date : 27th April 2024
Opposition : Armadale Thistle
Venue : Home
Scorers : Ross Aitchison, Craig Heath
Booked : Ross Aitchison, Cameron Howden, Tommy Malcolm
Sent Off : None
Attendance : 89
Referee : Jack Leslie
Team Lineup :
Ryan Dunn
Tommy Malcolm
Rhys Dixon
Craig Heath
Christian Temple
Riley Lightfoot
Griffin Sabatini
Ross Aitchison
Cameron Howden
Craig Bell
Rhys Bloomfield (c)
Subs :
Niall Frampton
Sam Straughan on for Griffin Sabatini 75 mins
Leighton Robertson
Jay Baverstock
TJ Adebayo
Evan Smith on for Christian Temple 75 mins
Match Report :
“Brilliant” was the post match comment of one regular Tweedmouth supporter and he wasn’t referring to the sun which bathed Shielfield for the duration of the game. Rangers made it a trio of wins on the trot. This one against a team lying third in the table with hopes of promotion was probably the most impressive of the three.
Tweedmouth had to work hard for victory but the team played with conviction and confidence including during a tense period of second half stoppage time which seemed like it was never going to end.
The teams were still level at 0-0 at the end of a finely balanced first half. It opened with Rhys Dixon heading away a corner won by Thistle’s tricky left winger Aaron Ramage. When the ball was returned from the opposite flank, it was safely held by Ryan Dunn, his first action of an assured performance between the sticks.
Later in the half, Craig Heath would also head clear a cross from Ramage who, along with team mates Colin Strickland and Jayden Fairley plus Tweedmouth’s Ross Aitchison, would send shots over the bar during the opening 45 minutes.
Nine minutes into the second forty five, Rangers went in front. Aitchison’s header off Dixon’s corner wrong footed keeper Andrew Murphy on its destination to the inside of his left post. The visitors were soon level through a Fairley penalty when Aitchison was ruled to have made a reckless challenge inside the box.
Rather than giving Armadale the lift the away fans might have been expecting, the equaliser spurred Tweedmouth to go straight back at them. They won a corner when a cross from Griffin Sabatini was headed over the bye line before it could reach Cammy Howden.
Further corners were won until a touch of the unorthodox led to what proved to be the winner, recorded as coming on 84 minutes. Sam Straughan now occupied the left wing spot but suddenly popped up in centre field to powerfully hoist the ball skywards. As it came down, Aitchison’s flick left Murphy stranded leaving Craig Heath to drill the ball into an empty net.
Heath being upfield at this point was an illustration of how much ground players were covering but without conceding space to Armadale at vital times. Picking a home man of the match could not have been easy. Craig Bell could potentially have wrapped up matters as Armadale were put under more pressure. His first shot was blocked and he felt he had hit his follow up strike well enough to score so full marks to Murphy for getting back on his line to stop that one, too.
As the game went into overtime, Kris Kelly curled a shot just beyond Dunn’s far post as Tweedmouth’s shouts of “Offside” went unheeded. In all other instances, determined defence ensured that Thistle returned home empty handed.