Friday 4 May 2018

Golden Boys







Saturday 5th May 2018
Scottish Amateur Football League Premier Division
Oban Saints AFC v Goldenhill AFC
Glencruitten 2
Mossfield Avenue
Oban
Argyll
PA34 4EH
Kick off 2pm
Referee Mr Thomas D'Alessandro



This Saturday game number eleven of the league season sees Saints welcome Scottish Amateur Cup finalists Goldenhill to Glencruitten or, should the grass park remain unplayable, the all weather surface at Oban High School. Goldenhill come to Oban just two weeks before the biggest match in the club's history and, after the cessation of league hostilities on Saturday afternoon, will leave with the best wishes of all at Oban Saints for their bid to become the first Scottish Amateur Football League winners of the Scottish Amatuer Cup since St Patrick's FP in 2006.

With a place in the Scottish Amateur Football League Centenary cup final and a Jimmy Marshall Trophy quarter finals slot to add to their Scottish Amateur Cup final appearance, Premier Division title favourites Goldenhill, who knocked Saints out at the quarter-finals stage en-route to their first ever Scottish Amateur Cup final are on course for an incredible four trophy haul in what could be a golden year for the Gowdie boys.

Despite recently being knocked off top spot in the league by arch rivals St Joseph's, Goldenhill's maximum points haul of twenty four points from their eight fixtures, coupled with a goal difference of plus twenty eight, makes them most onlookers favourites to claim their first ever Premier Division championship trophy. Their cup exploits have however left them playing catch-up in terms of league fixtures and they now face a gruelling run-in of up to twelve matches to be crammed in before the end of the season.

The Gowdie's scintillating league form has been repeated in the various cup competitions where only Scottish Amateur Cup draws with Tullibody Community and Sandys, and their solitary defeat of the season so far to Dumbarton Academy FP in the West of Scotland Amateur Cup, has briefly threatened to derail the Gowdie juggernaut.

Recognition for Goldenhill's impressive displays has come in the form of an international call-up for central midfielder Scott McGuire who played a key role in the Scottish Amateur Football Association select's Graham Harkness  Memorial Trophy victory over Ireland's Leinster Senior League at Lesser Hampden last month.

Scott McGuire in action for the Scottish Amateur Football Association select against Leinster Senior League


Scottish Amateur Cup

Following a first round bye, Goldenhill's Scottish Amateur Cup campaign began with a short hop across the Erskine Bridge to Renfrew to face Newshot. The hosts hold the distinction of being the last ever winners of the West of Scotland Amateur Football League before the sad demise of the world's oldest amateur football league. Unfortunately for the Erskine men they were no match for the Scottish Amateur Football League Premier Division leaders and wound up on the wrong end of an 8 - 2 scoreline. Newshot will however console themselves with another league championship success adding this season's Greater Glasgow Premier League Third Division to their impressive trophy haul.

The third round draw also handed Goldenhill an away tie this time with a considerably longer journey to Aberdeen to face Aberdeenshire Amateur Football Association Division Three title hopefuls Monymusk. The Gowdie boys returned from the chilly north east with an emphatic 10 - 0 victory under their belts.

Round four saw Goldenhill bag another ten goal haul this time at home to Lothian and Edinburgh Amateur Football Association intermediate division title favourites Edinburgh Star.

The Gowdie were on the road again in round five travelling to Strathclyde Park where Blantyre Celtic of Central Scottish Amateur Football League Division 1B were dispatched by three goals to one.

The Central Scottish Amateur Football League also provided the sixth round opposition where Division 1A Tullibody Community became the first team to hold Goldenhill this season with a 2 - 2 draw at the Donald Dewar Centre. The replay seven days later in Stirlingshire was a far more straight forward affair which saw the Gowdie put five past their hosts without reply to book a seventh round tie against Lothian and Edinburgh Amateur Football Association Premier Division title contenders Sandys.

The seventh round tie against Sandys had all of the thrills and spills which typifies the Scottish Amateur Cup. After snow wiped out the first attempt to play the match at Sandys at home park, a waterlogged pitch forced the half-time abandonment of the second attempt seven days later with the home side leading through a Kevin Stewart goal. Another postponement followed before Sandys tight grass park recovered sufficiently to allow a keenly contested match to proceed where the home side salvaged a late draw to take the tie to a replay in Drumchapel.

Sandys brought a large support to cheer them on at the Donald Dewar Centre on Garscadden Road however it was Goldenhill's home faithful who were cheering at the end of a five goal thriller.

The match got off to a bad start for the Gowdie when keeper Scott Rennie gave away a penalty kick in just the third minute. Despite reading the takers intentions correctly the big keeper couldn't reach the well placed spot kick which gave the visitors an early lead.

Immediately after the restart Goldenhill had a loud appeal for a penalty kick turned down by Referee James Cowie however the Caledonian League whistler was more sympathetic in the eighth minute and pointed to the spot when Jonathon Dyer was sent tumbling in the box. However James Gallagher failed to capitalise on the spot kick opportunity and saw his effort from twelve yards easily saved by the Sandys keeper.

The Goldenhill goal was leading a charmed life with the Sandys centre forward hitting the woodwork in the ninth minute and then, three minutes later, watching in disbelief as Scott Rennie pulled off a sensational one handed save to turn a net bound header over his crossbar.

The home side drew level in the sixteenth minute when Damon Gray dummied a James Gallagher pass into the path of Daniel Gibson who drilled a low shot across the keeper and into the bottom corner.

Incredibly the visitors regained the lead straight from the restart and came close twice more before the rapid tempo of the match dropped a notch leading up to half time.

Mr Cowie denied Goldenhill another penalty kick in the thirty fifth minute ruling that a trip on Scott McGuire had taken place fractionally outside the penalty area, a decision which perplexed the home contingent to say the least.

Sandys began the second half well and drew another top drawer save from Scott Rennie before the home side restored parity for a second time. Jonathon Dyer pounced on a loose ball in the Sandys box and drilled a low fifty second minute shot past the keeper's right hand and into the bottom corner.

The action continued to rage from end to end with both sides passing up presentable chances to get their noses in front. With clock reaching the eighty eighth minute and extra-time looking inevitable the home side conjured up one final opening which striker James Gallagher gratefully accepted. Martin Lawlor sliced open the Sandys defence with a perfectly weighted through ball for the run of Gallacher. The Sandys keeper got a touch on Gallacher's low shot but couldn't prevent the ball from finding the net to the delight of the home support.

The quarter final was an all Scottish Amateur Football League affair at the Donald Dewar Centre, Drumchapel on 14th April where Goldenhill and twice beaten semi-finalists Oban Saints treated a large crowd to another thrilling cup tie. The form book made the home side favourites and, despite Skipper Donald Campbell giving Saints a first half lead, there was to be no third semi-final for Alex Craik and his charges as Goldenhill took charge in the second half.

Following Matthew Moore's forty ninth minute leveller the hosts took the lead in controversial circumstances in the fifty eighth minute. James Gallagher appeared to impede Graham Douglas as the two challenged at the back post for a Daniel Gibson right wing cross. Crucially Referee Gallacher saw nothing wrong with the Goldenhill striker's challenge and allowed play to continue where Jonathon Dyer prodded home the loose ball from two yards out. Graham Douglas and Paul Carmichael were incensed at the lack of a free-kick award from Mr Gallacher who rubbed salt into the wound by booking both for their protests.

Spurred on by a sense of injustice Saints pushed forward in search of an equaliser where Scott McGuire won a crucial interception and sent Damon Gray and Jonathon Dyer off on a seventy ninth minute counter-attack on the left. Willie Gemmell made good ground to head off the danger at the expense of a corner kick however there was to be no stopping the effort which was to follow from talismanic striker Daniel Gibson. The corner kick duties were left to James Gallagher who picked out Gibson unmarked on the edge of the box who unleashed an unstoppable shot into the postage stamp corner to double the home side's advantage.

There was to be no way back for a tiring Saints team with Goldenhill comfortably seeing out the remainder of the game to clinch a semi-final spot against Bridgewater of the Central Scottish Amateur Football League.

The semi-final at New Douglas Park, Hamilton was a tight affair which the Gowdie edged by a solitary James Gallagher goal to send them on their way to face Shortlees in the final at Hampden Park on Sunday 20th May.



West of Scotland Cup

Goldenhill's solitary defeat of the season so far came in the sixth round of the West Of Scotland Amateur Cup where they were edged out by the odd goal in three by 2012 winners Dumbarton Academy FP.

Prior to that it was very much a case of business as usual as the high scoring Gowdie put five without reply past Tarbolton of the Ayrshire Amateur Football Association Premier League in round two.

Much closer encounters with Ayrshire First Division side Dailly and Eaglesham of the Caledonian League Division 1B followed in rounds three and four before the draw for round five paired them with the newly formed Yoker United.

The local derby was an eight goal thriller where Goldenhill ultimately had too much in their armoury for the Strathclyde Saturday Morning Amateur Football League Division 1A men. However Yoker United ran the Gowdie extremely close and were only finally beaten in the dying seconds of a pulsating tie. With Goldenhill clinging on to a slender one goal lead keeper Scott Rennie made an excellent save to deny Yoker an equaliser and set up a clinical counter attack for the Gowdie to kill the tie at 5 - 3.


Domestic Cups

As well as throwing down the gauntlet in the Scottish Amateur Football League Premier Division title race reaching the halfway stage with eight straight wins, the Gowdie have already progressed to the final of the Centenary Cup where they will face title rivals Alba Thistle. Particularly pleasing for the Gowdie boys was their quarter final local derby victory over St Joseph's FP back in October where they came from behind twice to knock out the cup holders by five goals to two securing the early season bragging rights into the bargain.

Their exploits in the major cup competitions has lead to a late start in the Jimmy Marshall Trophy for Goldenhill which, following a first round bye, kicked off at William Street, Duntocher with a 1 - 0 home victory against Premier Division Two promotion hopefuls FC Argyle. A third round penalty shoot-out victory over cup holders Easthall Star following a 2 - 2 draw at Stepford sets up another quarter-final for the Gowdie boys this time away to in-form Inverclyde.





Goldenhill starting eleven for their Scottish Amateur Cup semi-final victory over Bridgewater 


Goldenhill's results so far this season:-

Scottish Amateur Football League Premier Division

19th August 2017 East Kilbride Rolls Royce AFC 0 - 4 Goldenhill AFC
26th August 2017 Goldenhill AFC 3 - 2 Inverclyde AFC
21st October 2017 Goldenhill AFC 8 - 0 Oban Saints
28th October 2017 East Kilbride FC Amateurs 0 - 3 Goldenhill
11th November 2017 St Joseph's FP 1 - 2 Goldenhill
6th January 2018 Goldenhill 5 - 0 Hillington
13th January 2018 Goldenhill 5 - 0 East Kilbride FC Amateurs
17th March 2018 Hillington 2 - 3 Goldenhill
28th April 2018 Goldenhill v Motherwell Thistle - Fixture Unfulfilled
5th May 2018 Oban Saints v Goldenhill
9th May 2018 Goldenhill v St Joseph's FP
12th May 2018 Goldenhill v East Kilbride Rolls Royce
6th June 2018 Alba Thistle v Goldenhill

SAFL Centenary Cup

1st Round Group Section North 2
12th August 2017 Goldenhill AFC 9 - 0 Carlton YMCA
23rd August 2017 Barrhead Arky AFC 1 - 4 Goldenhill AFC
2nd September 2017 Port Glasgow OBU 1 - 12 Goldenhill AFC

Quarter Final
7th October 2017 Goldenhill AFC 5 - 2 St Joseph's FP AFC

Semi Final
18th April 2018 Goldenhill 6 - 1 Motherwell Thistle

Final
Goldenhill v Alba Thistle


SAFL Jimmy Marshall Trophy

1st Round
Bye

2nd Round
11th April 2018 Goldenhill AFC 1 - 0 FC Argyle

3rd Round
2nd May 2018 Easthall Star 2 - 2 Goldenhill
Goldenhill win 4 - 2 on penalty kicks

Quarter Final
14th May Inverclyde v Goldenhill


Scottish Amateur Cup


1st Round
Bye

2nd Round
30th September 2017 Newshot AFC 2 - 8 Goldenhill AFC

3rd Round
4th November 2107 Monymusk AFC 0 - 10 Goldenhill AFC

4th Round
2nd December 2017 Goldenhill 10 - 2 Edinburgh Star

5th Round
3rd February 2018 Blantyre Celtic 1 - 3 Goldenhill

6th Round
10th February 2018 Goldenhill 2 - 2 Tullibody Community

6th Round Replay
17th February 2018 Tullibody Community 0 - 5 Goldenhill

7th Round
10th March 2018 Sandys v Goldenhill (match abandoned at half-time due to waterlogged pitch)

7th Round
24th March 2018 Sandys 2 - 2 Goldenhill

7th Round Replay
31st March 2018 Goldenhill 3 - 2 Sandys

Quarter-final
14th April 2018 Goldenhill 3 - 1 Oban Saints

Semi-final
25th April 2018 Goldenhill 1 - 0 Bridgewater

Final
20th May 2018 Shortlees v Goldenhill



West of Scotland Amateur Cup


1st Round
Bye

2nd Round
16th September 2017 Goldenhill AFC 5 - 0 Tarbolton AFC

3rd Round
14th October 2017 Dailly AFC 1 - 2 Goldenhill AFC

4th Round
18th November 2017 Goldenhill 2 - 1 Eaglesham

5th Round
27th January 2018 Yoker United 3 - 5 Goldenhill

6th Round
24th February 2018 Dumbarton Academy FP 2 - 1 Goldenhill




Goldenhill's recent SAFL finishes:-


2012 - 13 Division One Promoted and Coronation Cup Winners
2013 - 14 Premier Division Two 2nd Promoted
2014 - 15 Premier Division One 4th Promoted and Centenary Cup Winners
2015 - 16 Premier Division and West of Scotland Amateur Cup Runners-up
2016 - 17 Premier Division 3rd 



Goldenhill SAFL Centenary Cup Winners 2014 - 15






#monthesaints

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