LATE LEVELLER AT LINKS PK

Baz battles
By Gary McKenzie
May 7 2005

Scottish Football League Division Three, Saturday 7 May 2005, Links Park, Montrose. MONTROSE 2 (Sharp (85,90)) EAST FIFE 2 (Mitchell (55), Byle (59)). There wasn't much at stake for either side in the last game of the season, but they both contributed to make this an exciting encounter.

The Fifers began much brighter, presing well, and forcing a couple of corners.

One corner from the right on 8 minutes caused panic in the Mo defence as Butter fumbled the ball but managed to gather at the second attempt.

Once again, East Fife threatened down their right and forced another corner in 13 minutes. A header slammed off the crossbar and out and the Mo defence thankfully scrambled it away.

Sharpy dribbled the ball down the inside right channel, but the ball caught between his feet as he tried to settle himself to shoot and he ended up miskicking.

Barry Donachie must have thought he'd been hit by a train on 20 minutes as Butter kicked the ball from hand and hit him full in the side of the head. The defender picked himself up and got right back into the action, and the Mo survived.

On 25 minutes Webster made a good run down the right but shot well over.

Former Gable Endie, Johnathan Mitchell went close on 40 minutes. He ran into the box on the left and beat Butter at his near post but the ball struck the upright and bounced out.

The teams went in level at half-time, but the Mo were living very dangerously. There seemed to be a real problem in midfield as the Fifers pressed the ball well. Butter was not having the best of days in goal either.

However, we fully expected Hanry Hall to give them a roasting at half-time, and surely they wouldn't play as badly in the second...

It started well on 48 minutes when Watson got the ball in the visitors' box, and with defenders hands all over him, managed to turn, but his shot was deflected wide.

Watson was in the thick of it again on 51 minutes when he broke clear on the right. His shot beat the keeper but wasn't strong enough to get past the defender on the line.

MITCHELL broke the deadlock for the Fifers on 55 minutes. There was suspicion of offside as he ran through and slotted the ball low under Butter, but the flag stayed down and the visitors were one up.

It got worse for the Mo four minutes later when we were caught upfield looking for the equaliser. The Fifers broke away down the right and a high cross was met by Byle at the far post. Montrose looked dead and buried at this stage.

However, Henry Hall wasn't beat and on the hour mark he sent on Hall and Graham for Fraser and Wood who had looked uninterested all day.

On 64 minutes, Sharp shot wildly high and wide.

On 69 minutes, Jim Moffat changed Kelly for Fairbairn and the Mo responded in 74 minutes with Daryn Smith for Watson.This left Daryn up front with Ross Graham. This pairing seemed to work better for the Mo, and we began firing high balls to Graham to knock down to Smith and also Sharp and Webster who had switched wings for about the third time looking for the breakthrough.

East Fife sent on Ferguson for Paliczka in 81 minutes and they began wasting as much time as they could.

However, SHARP brought the home fans to life on 85 minutes. He fired a powerful shot from the edge of the box. The keeper managed to get hands to it, but couldn't prevent it going in.

With seconds remaining, the Mo got an unlikely equaliser when Stephen headed the ball back into a crowded penalty area and SHARP expertly turned and fired the ball first time low past the keeper.

The Mo were lucky to come away with a point in this game as we only really began to play and show any sort of footballing ability in the last 20 minutes. Jim Butter will want to forget this match as quickly as possible. He looked very shaky with passbacks and needed too much time on the ball for the nippy East Fife attack.

So the season's all over and we finished in 5th place in the league behind Gretna, Peterhead, Cowdenbeath and Queen's Park. Roll on season 2005/6 when hopefully the league won't be all but decided by Christmas and Arbroath make a return to the bottom division.

The club announced that a friendly with Aberdeen will take place at Links Park in the close season, and next Sunday sees the Montrose FC Gala Day at Links Park from 12pm. See you there!

 

Teams

Montrose

Butter, Donachie, E Smith, Spink, Stephen, Fraser, Webster, Smart, Wood, Watson, Sharp

Subs: Hall, D Smith, Graham, Kerrigan. Hankinson

East Fife

Dodds, Duncan, Brash, Lumsden, Bain, Kelly, Paliczka, Byle, Nicholas, Mitchell, Beith

Subs: Crawford, Ferguson, Boyle, Tarditi, Morrison

 

Other Match Reports

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_div_1/4521799.stm
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=155322&cc=5739
http://www.montrose-mad.co.uk/news/loadrprt.asp?cid=MTCH&id=221114