Friday, 23 August 2013

Saints Open In Style

Saturday 17th August 2013 SAFL Premier Division

Oban Saints AFC 4 - 0 Kilbowie Union

After months of careful planning Saints unveiled their much anticipated stadium upgrade at last Saturday's first home match of the new season.

 
 
 
The all new substitutes bench
 
 
The innovative three seat design allows the introduction of a game of musical chairs into the substitutes warm-up routine. Other planned improvements include the introduction of covered dug-outs which sponsors D & K Lafferty Contractors are actively working on.
 
 
 

 
 
 
How the new dug-outs may look.
 
 

 
Saints starting line up for the match was:-
 
Graham Douglas, Dene Cassells, Alex Craik, Marc MacCallum (Captain), Willie Gemmell, Paul Kerr, Donald Campbell, Brian MacKay, Craig MacEwan, Matty Rippon and Allan MacKay.
 
First to try out the fantastic new bench were Sonin Kurishita and new signings Daniel Cameron, Lewis Cameron and Colin Carswell.
 
 
Saints opened in blistering style taking the lead in the first minute when Allan MacKay got on the end of a Paul Kerr cross to score his first goal for Saints since returning from injury at the end of last season. Saints were playing some excellent football which newly promoted Kilbowie Union were unable to cope with. Saints doubled their lead after twelve minutes when Donald Campbell finished off a slick passing move involving Brian and Allan MacKay with a well struck shot past the Kilbowie 'keeper. A feature of Saints play was the strong running from midfield of Brian MacKay which Kilbowie struggled to come to terms with throughout the match.
 
 
Saints continued to dominate the first half with quick and accurate passing and it was only a matter of time when more goals would come. On forty minutes Saints centre forward Allan MacKay received the ball in the Kilbowie box, with his back to goal Allan expertly turned his marker and dispatched an unstoppable left foot shot past the despairing dive of the hard worked Kilbowie 'keeper. Straight from the re-start Saints regained possession and another strong run at the heart of the Kilbowie defence from Brian MacKay ended with the Saints midfielder being upended in the penalty box. Matty Rippon took the resulting penalty kick and finished emphatically from the spot to give Saints an unassailable 4 - 0 half time lead.
 
 
Half-time team talk.
 
 
Saints Manager Iain Jackson took full advantage of the healthy first half lead to give all four substitutes a good run out in the second half. Kilbowie gave a far better account of themselves in the second half and came close to scoring on two occasions form corner kicks. Saints, although not at their best, remained reasonably comfortable in the second half and the game finished with no further scoring.
 
This was an excellent performance from Saints which hopefully bodes well for the season ahead. The only down side being a needless booking for dissent for new Captain Marc MacCallum.
 
#monthesaints
 
 
 
 
 
 


 


No comments:

Post a Comment