St Andrews United 1-3 Musselburgh Athletic
Scorer: Kyle Sneddon (Sponsored by Dave Stewart, joiner)

A disappointing result but the performance was reasonable against a strong visiting team that was backed by a good away support.

Not surprisingly, title-chasing Musselburgh started the match as the stronger side and home goalkeeper Logan Halliday made a couple of early saves from weak shots. Athletic skipper Robert Wilson then fired a shot into the side-netting from a corner before Jackson Barker saw an effort ruled out for being offside. However, Saints grew into the contest thereafter and the hosts created a couple of shooting opportunities that were lost due to hesitation. Halliday subsequently made a terrific save from Gabri Auriemma to keep the away team at bay a little longer and the new-look central defence of Ryan McManus and debutante John Tod also performed well. That being said, the visitors looked dangerous every time they went forward and they opened the scoring on the half-hour mark when Auriemma headed a great cross from Aiden Walsh past a helpless Halliday.

The United players rallied almost immediately as Kyle Sneddon went close with a shot from the edge of the box then Owen Andrew failed to win an appeal for a penalty a few moments later. The action was swinging from end-to-end at that point and Nathan Evans was booked for fouling McManus as the home players competed fairly well against technically good opponents. Indeed, the Musselburgh boys thought that they’d scored a second goal right on the stroke of half time but Halliday scrambled the ball clear at his near post. The score therefore remained at 1-0 heading into the break and St Andrews United manager Garry Wright made one change during the interval as Luke Mahady replaced debutante Finlay Kerr. Unfortunately, the change didn’t help much as the visitors began the second half as the stronger side, whilst shooting down the hill. Walsh and Oban Anderson both tested Halliday with decent efforts before Auriemma made the score 2-0 in the 51st minute with a lovely lob over the home goalie.

Wright subsequently made three further substitutions with Lewis Craik, Dan Hall and Lewis Sawers stepping off the bench and those changes worked straight away because his players pulled a goal back in the 58th minute. Sneddon found the net with a great drive that took a slight deflection off a defender to beat Liam McCathie then Sawers almost equalised with a quick turn and shot at the end of the next attack. Alas, McCathie saved that effort and the result was put beyond doubt in the 65th minute when Auriemma blasted the ball into the corner of Halliday’s net to make the score 3-1.

Saints briefly rallied thereafter as Sawers claimed for a hand-ball by a defender in the home box following a shot by James Collins yet there would be no more scoring as the hosts grew tired. As such, the men from East Lothian finished the match as they had begun by pressing forward. Walsh saw an attempt ruled offside before Halliday made a superb stop from Andy Dempster during injury time. The Musselburgh party therefore crossed back over the Forth Bridge with all three points but the St Andrews United players still gave a good account of themselves throughout the 90 minutes.

Match Report by Don Burnett
Crowd: 166