Eastwood unlucky in 4-2 loss to St Ninians

Eastwood seniors were unlucky to lose against St Ninians controversially. But there were a lot of positives to come out of the game and the performance will hopefully give the team a lot of confidence for the rest of the games in the season.

The game started positively with the front three, Kyle Taylor, Keenan Campbell and Harris Mclean, pressing the defence up the park. St Ninians were unable to get out so a free kick was awarded, taken by Calvin McGrory.  We kept the pressure up and Harris had a great chance but just dragged his shot wide.  St Ninians had a good few chances but our defence cleared the ball well and Calum James made a great number of blocks.  From a corner, St Ninians had a great chance but they missed a free header right in front of Scott Johnson, Eastwood goalkeeper. Scott made a great save by tipping it onto the bar after the defence failed to clear their lines.  It was a superb first half end to end and Calvin had another brilliant shot and it pulled out a great stop from the goalkeeper.  But then Kyle had the best chance of the game so far when he took it round a couple of defenders and shot it straight on target at the goalkeeper.

Suddenly, the first goal of the game came for Eastwood from Keenan Campbell after a run from Kyle taking it passed 3 players, passing to Keenan who slotted it in at the near post – a deserved lead for the Eastwood seniors. Nevertheless, it was only a few minutes later that St Ninians were level with poor defending form the Eastwood boys after we failed to clear their lines.  But then – another goal for Eastwood came quick! Just before half time,  it was our goalkeeper that got the assist when he hit it up from a goal kick and Calum Patrick ran onto it with a powerful amount of pace, past the defence and chipped it over the goalkeeper into the far right corner.

The second half started with St Ninians on the front foot and Scott in goal, pulling off a string of great saves to keep us in the lead. But then Eastwood started to play some outstanding football which lead to some great chances, one from Keenan who got a shot cleared off the line then Stefan Downey hit the rebound and the keeper pulled off a great save.  Unfortunately, it all went downhill from Eastwood as St Ninians scored 3 quick goals.  The first one came from an overhead kick into the top corner but I found out after the game that he was offside so that goal should not have stood.  Then about 4 minutes later the defence again failed to clear their lines again so they managed to get through our defence and score to take the lead. St Ninians wrapped the game up with a controversial goal when Cameron Keir was blatantly fouled but the referee didn’t give it and their striker ran through on goal, dinking it over Scott to wrap it up.