| Strathclyde Saturday Morning League:Division 1 | |
| 17th December 2005 Barlia Sports Complex |
|
| Windlaw | 5 |
| Z.Dougall,McCaig(2),Blochairn OG,Campbell | |
| Blochairn Star | 1 |
Action Details
A freezing morning at Barlia with conditions underfoot treacherous. Windlaw bring in Alan Nugent upfront to replace the suspended Benny Carey, Windlaw's top scorer prior to this game. Windlaw fly out of the traps at a shellshocked looking Blochairn side and go 3-0 up inside 25 minutes. Zanda Dougall starts it off by glancing in a fine front post header from Kevin McCann's free-kick. Eck McCaig doubles the lead by studding home Alan Nugent's near post cutback after he beat the offside trap. A bizarre own goal makes it three after Blochairn's centre-half inexplicably nods past the advancing keeper after a Windlaw cross from the left. 25 minutes gone and Windlaw in dreamland. In truth, it could have been much worse for Blochairn by then as Alan Nugent had hit the bar and missed another good chance when clean through. Wullie Thornton also had a goal chalked off for a dubious looking offside decision after he pounced on a shot spilled by the Blochairn keeper. Suddenly though, Blochairn burst into action and began some neat passing moves and built up some pressure. They hit the top of the bar with a cross-cum shot before pulling one back just before the break. Kevin McCann is dispossessed in his own half and the ball is immediately played to the edge of the Windlaw box where the Blochairn player controls it well and fires past Lunny's left hand into the corner for a deserved counter. A strange first half ended with Windlaw on the back foot after having chances galore to put the game out of sight.
Half Time: Windlaw 3 Blochairn Star 1
Blochairn have the better of the start of the second half as they search for the breakthrough that would bring them right back into it. Again, their build up play is good but they fail to carve Windlaw open enough to create guilt-edged chances. One chance is scrambled clear after John Lunny rushes from his line to challenge Gerry Hughes. Windlaw are well organised though by Sinclair and Zanda Dougall and the expected storm is then rode out. Eck McCaig seals the victory with 20 minutes left with his ninth goal of the season. A free-kick by Zanda Dougall is floated into the Blochairn box and McCaig's looping backheader crosses the line of the unguarded net before the predatory boot of Chris Kerr made sure of it. The goalkeeper had charged out from his line to deal with the danger but was far too late in arriving. With the game in the bag, McCaig then missed a sitter for his hat-trick allowing the keeper to save when clean through. The final nail in the coffin came minutes from the end when Windlaw sub Darren Campbell ran through the ragged Blochairn defence to fire a fifth for Windlaw and put the seal on a superb morning's work and fire Windlaw top of the league as they enjoy their turkey this year.
Full Time: Windlaw 5 Blochairn Star 1
Summing Up - A superb result for Windlaw although the quality of performance strangely never matched it. We've passed it better in recent weeks and to be fair, Blochairn at times moved it better than us. What we had in spades though was great attitude and spirit and a nice organisation. To be fair, we caught Blochairn on a bad day for them, similarly to our 8-3 defeat at Glenconner this time last year. It is probably still too late to mount a league challenge but in a season where the wind of change is blowing through the club and we are in the midst of a transitional period, some good things are emerging from the burning ashes of that black day at Eddlewood in November
