Kelburne Men's 5s Beat Clydesdale 4s 2-0

On 21.09.19 - It was a beautiful afternoon at sunny Titwood, and two teams, with an abundance of youth on show were ready to do battle. It was a much changed Clydesdale team that lined up to face the 5’s after the previous weeks drubbing by our 4’s and it was clear it was going to be a much more competitive game. The start of the game saw Kelburne with all the early pressure and some lovely link up play between Dick and Tommy set Calum Brown free on the right hand side, where he made space for himself to made a superb cross into the D that Calum Stewart met perfectly but his shot went into the side netting. Aaron, Dick and Tommy were causing Clydesdale all sorts of problems with driving runs into the circle and were unlucky not to get us off the mark. As Clydesdale huffed and puffed a bit at the other end Jack made a solid tackle, ushering the ball from danger and releasing an immediate attack that eventually saw Nic pick up the ball just outside the D which he drove onto his left unleashing a reverse stick shot back across the goal and into the far corner, 1-0 Kelburne!!! And great reward for an outstanding early performance. Our young defence of Jack, Andrew, Rory and Dylan were marshalled by the experience of Stuart Robbin and alongside Fionn they were as solid as a rock. In fact it was 25 minutes before Clydesdale managed a shot from wide on the left, bringing out a great stop from Fionn. Jared was linking our defence and forwards on the right with some solid midfield defending and quick passing to have us on attack quickly and this was putting Clydesdale under lots of pressure. As the ball broke to Dick he disguised a straight ball through to Aaron and he played Tommy in to slot the ball home through the goalies legs and 2-0 to Kelburne!! Calum Jamieson made superb tackle as Clydesdale tried to create an attack and then Andrew played a lovely long ball into the 25 for Aaron but it was cleared to safety. Stuart was solid at the back and played ball to Tommy who moved it on sharply to Charlie who couldn’t quite collect. Clydesdale were coming into the game a bit more and Fionn was needed for a second time with an excellent clearance, with Rory making a fantastic tackle to follow this, only to be unluckily punished for a hand on the attackers back. This seemed to spur him on though as the next run of play saw him on the line clearing a Clydesdale shot. HALF TIME 2-0 Kelburne

The 2nd half started as the first finished, with Kelburne having lots of possession. There was lots of passing and attack after attack. Charlie’s pace and tenacity was causing some of the Clydesdale player’s real problems and they didn’t seem to know how to manage him. Andrew McGrane worked really hard in creating space and opportunities for himself and did some stellar work channelling a defender and winning the ball back for Kelburne to apply pressure on Clydesdale again. Dylan and Nic linked well with quick passes and Nic created some space to release Calum Stewart in the D to create a 1 on 1 with the goalie, but unfortunately he couldn’t slot it away. As the 2nd half went on Clydesdale came into the game a bit more but our defence continued to play well and it didn’t look as though we were going to be breached. They came close but Andrew made a fantastic stop on the line that Calum Brown cleared and immediately saw us counter attack at pace. Dick and Tommy linked up with Charlie in some great space but Clydesdale cleared their lines well. Quick creative play once again saw Aaron drive into the circle winning a short corner that Calum Brown struck well bringing out an excellent save by their goalie. The sunshine went away for a wee while or so the support thought as there was a short period that was a bit dull overhead, but Paul had just popped away from the pitch for 5 mins and as soon as he and his pink trainers returned the sunshine was once again there to brighten up the huge and vocal support. This was a great team performance in all areas of the pitch and on the side lines. Well done Kelburne 5’s, 2-0 victory!!!!