Match report: Pursuers 1 v 2 Club Athletic

Sat 28 August 2004
Report by by Hugh Levens of The Scottish Pun (AKA Robert Dawson)

Pursuers completed their pre-season preparation with an away "Friendly" against Club Athletic.

With McKinnon out injured the gloves were passed to McKinlay who is again hoping to play in every position for the Pursuers for the second season running!

Pursuers started well with some nice one-touch passing particularly between the midfield two of O'Neil and C McLeish and the front two of "Brido" and "Mango Man"..... there's a song in there somewhere!

However after 20 minutes the breakthrough came from Club Athletic when the Pursuers midfield failed to "make the tackle" on the edge of the box and when the ball fell to Club Athletic's right midfield he blasted passed McKinlay.

1-0

Pursuers were forced to change an all ready shaky defence when the injured Mohan was replaced by the late arriving Narey who had managed to pack his boots in his suit case for his up coming holiday as opposed to his footie bag.... Doh!

Pursuer continued to press for an equaliser and when Mango Man Komolafe held the ball up and then released an inch perfect pass to the supporting C McLeish who side passed the ball into the far corner of the net the Pursuers were level.

1-1

A further 10 minute of pressure from the Pursuers failed to see them take the lead and when Dawson failed to prevent a cross coming in from the right and Narey failed to get close enough to an on-coming midfielder pursuer found themselves down 2-1 at the interval.

H.T. 2-1

The start of the second half saw Carnoustie man Byrne given the opportunity to stake a claim at right midfield taking over from the surprisingly quiet (in the football sense) Mir.

Club Athletic started the stronger in the second half with Pursuer having to rely on McKinlay and an off the line clearance by J McLeish to keep the deficit to one.

Despite manager F Komolafe bringing on fresh legs in Kane and Brown for Brido and O'Neill Pursuers still struggled to make any impact in the game.

And with 10 minutes remaining ........................... yes we all know what happened, but we're not going to incriminate anyone on this web site!!!

F.T 2-1

Pursuers return "Home" to Mount Blow this Tuesday in their first competitive league cup game of the season when they take on Bellahouston. Will this be Pursuers first home win in over a year and their first competitive win since 10 April 2004?

Hugh Levens
The Scottish Pun