KEIRON STRENGTHENS TRANENT SQUAD

MYS Blue Stripes 12 - 6 Tranent Juniors (9May09)

By playing our re-arranged game against Tranent Juniors, we had our third home game in as many weeks. During the first quarter we completely dominated the game and quickly established the lead courtesy of a shot from Keiron who collected a pass from Jason and fired the ball past the goalie. Shortly afterwards Jason’s corner from the left, which was delivered with pace, was unfortunately turned into his own net off the defender’s head. He was brave enough to try to clear the ball, it was just the ball struck the back of his head and flew past the keeper. It was all one way traffic as Owain extended our lead courtesy of a great shot across the goalie into the net with his stronger left foot after seeing his first attempt with his right foot being blocked by a defender. From a Tranent corner, Lennon won the ball and carried it up the pitch and whilst he admits that he was trying to pass the ball to Keiron, he misdirected the pass and it ended up being a shot which the goalie couldn’t hold and it ended up in the net. Just before the end of the first quarter, Keiron collected the ball outside the box and with the wind at his back he smashed a great shot past the keeper to end the period 5-0.

As Tranent only arrived with 7 players, Keiron who was going to be one of our subs for the second period, agreed to play for Tranent. Right from the start, they looked a completely different team and it wasn’t just down to having the extra man. The boy who had inadvertently scored the own goal, was now playing in midfield and he was to completely transform their team. His first contribution was to receive the ball from their kick off and go on a solo run which ended with his shooting past Jason. Whilst our tackling left a lot to be desired, it was his individual skill and determination that was rewarded with a goal. This stung us back into action and with Ethan playing as striker, he unselfishly past the ball to Ben and although his angle was much more acute, he drilled a shot past the goalie by restore our 5 goal advantage. Whilst I was taking the opportunity of playing boys in different and largely unfamiliar positions, we lost a couple of goals towards the end of the second quarter purely as a result of inexperienced defending. Our defenders were either caught on the wrong side or we were guilty of not clearing the ball properly. A positive from this period was seeing Scott who was playing in midfield spraying the ball around from the middle of the park.

Anyway the second period ended and with the score now 6-3, Keiron came back onto our side. We changed the team again and at the start of the third period, Tranent scored a good goal when the ball was drilled from midfield up to their striker who controlled the ball, turned and shot past Ben in what appeared to be one movement. However with Jason restored to left mid, he collected the ball in their half from the goalie’s clearance and ran the ball back to their goal unchallenged and comfortably put the ball in the net. Whilst we were dominant in this period and we created loads of chances for Cameron, Owain and Jason, their goalie was inspired and kept them in the game. We scored a good team goal courtesy of Cameron playing the ball into Owain who just cushioned the ball into Jason’s path for him to shot past the keeper. A simple yet very effective move. Their best player wasn’t finished yet and he was largely involved in a good move which they converted to make the score at the end of the third period 8-5.

At the beginning of the last period, Ethan scored his first goal for the team by ensuring that he was first to the ball after Owain’s shot was parried by the goalie for Ethan to turn into the net. Shortly afterwards we had a great sweeping counter attack move involving Ben, Owain and Jamie which saw Jamie just fail to convert the cross from Owain. With Keiron volunteering to play for them in the last quarter, it was an even contest albeit with Ben’s energy in centre mid, we were the team creating most of the chances. Indeed just after Tranent scored their 6th and last goal, which based on their efforts after the first period was totally deserved, Ben struck a great shot from way out the box into the net. His shot was all the more remarkable when you consider we were playing into the wind.

With Owain and Jamie linking up well together, Jamie was able to convert an intelligent cross from Owain which he curled around the defender with perfect weight into Jamie’s path. Jason and Jamie had further chances before Ethan finished off a great move which saw the goalie having to palm a great cross from Ben at his feet. It was another example of Ethan being in the right place at the right time and hopefully this gives him confidence to score loads more. It was also pleasing to see Ben deliver a great cross which caused so much difficulty for the goalie especially as this is something we have been working on in training.

We made loads of positional changes in this game and despite the problems they encountered in the second period, Cameron and Lennon defended really well in the third and last quarters. Brendan played well on both sides of defence and it is difficult to work out whether he is better on the right or left side.

Finally we came through a difficult spell in the 2nd period and ran out worthy winners. However Tranent played really well after the first quarter and big thanks has to go to Keiron for volunteering to play for them and making such a massive contribution to their team. It certainly made it a much more interesting and competitive game.

Squad: Jamie, Brendan, Ethan, Keiron, Jason, Owain, Lennon, Scott, Cameron and Ben

Goalscorers: Keiron (2), Own Goal, Owain, Lennon, Ben (2), Jason (2), Ethan (2) & Jamie