Saturday 22 February 2014
Penicuik Park
Scottish Junior Cup 5th Round
Penicuik Athletic
Starting XI | Bejaoui, Ross, McDermott, Young, Cunnison (c), Lister, Brigain (Millar 76), Gay, Killin, Robertson (McPartlin 56), Montgomery
Unused subs | Harris, Dickson, Hill
Irvine Meadow XI
Starting XI | S Hall, Darroch, Twaddle, Staunton, Campbell, Thomson, McCan, Fraser, Maxwell, McLaren, Halliday
Subs | Sideserf, Miller, C Hall, Bristow, Shepherd
After an early pitch inspection for this once postponed 5th round Scottish Junior Cup saw the game go ahead in front of a 500 plus crowd. Penicuik should have taken the lead in the 5th minute when Ross Montgomery got round the back of the Meadow defence only to see his shot blocked by keeper Stephen Hall. The ball fell to Grant Killin in the six yard box but his effort was blocked on the goal line and the ball fell straight into the arms of Hall. Irvine had the ball in the back of the net in the 15th minute, when Paul Maxwell headed home at the back post, but was ruled offside. Then Montgomery and Ryan Gay came close before Hall scrambled across his goal line to turn a deflected shot by Dayne Robertson round the post. In the 27th minute, Garry McCann blasted over the bar for Irvine and minutes later Willie McLaren hit the side netting. Immediately afterwards, Montgomery did exactly the same for Penicuik. Right on half time, keeper Hall dived low down to his left to pull off a great save and deny Robertson.
HALFTIME | Penicuik Athletic 0-0 Irvine Meadow XI
Irvine upped the pace of their game from the restart and for twenty minutes Penicuik were forced on the back foot with Cunnison and Young outstanding in the centre of defence. Penicuik gradually worked their way back into the game but neither team were able to penetrate two solid defences. The final 15 minutes produced opportunities for both sides to win the game. Firstly a powerful header was net bound, but keeper Bejaoui brought off the save of the match with an instinctive one handed save to turn the ball over the bar. At the other end, following a swift break from defence, a Montgomery cross was almost put into his own net by Mark Staunton, but was deflected off another defender for a corner. In the dying minutes, Penicuik thought they had won the tie, but another great save by Hall denied McPartlin.The replay now goes to Meadow Park next Saturday.
FULLTIME | Penicuik Athletic 0-0 Irvine Meadow XI
Penicuik Manager Craig Meikle said “I was delighted with the players today, every one of whom gave 100%. There was the odd slack pass but I put that down to the difficult underfoot conditions. I don’t think there was much between the two teams and we had chances to win the game, so I am a bit disappointed about that. I think it might be a chance missed because it is obviously going to be difficult next week at Irvine. However, if we go through there next week and apply ourselves the way we did today there is every chance we could get a result”.
Irvine Manager Stevie Rankin said “It was a hard fought tie and we knew it would be a difficult game for us coming through to Penicuik. Penicuik put us under the cosh for long periods of the game and the underfoot conditions were difficult for both sides. I thought the goal that was chalked off was a strange decision by the referee and I believe there was only going to be one goal in it we now look forward to the replay at Meadow Park”.