Glentanar v Huntly

A few changes in personel the day. With Mike awa ploddin roon the streets o Inverness ,Mark took charge for this een. With only thirteen men available & mainstay central defender Craig oot for a few wiks efter sustainin a hairline fracture to his erm last week at Stoney Mark hid to reshuffle the pack a bit.
The game was played on Glentanar Junior's pitch, which was a good surface, reasonably flat, but probably biggish for under thirteens.
Kickin into a howlin gale first half, it soon became obvious oor loons were in for a tough shift with maist o the attackin comin fae Glentanar and only the odd foray upfield on the brak to ease the pressure.The sma'est (& probably youngest) player on the pitch, Glen's number seven, wis gee'in us hell doon the richt side. His touches, turns & runnin, off & on the ball were superb & bloody annoyin at the same time. It really needed someone to gee him a richt guid clatter (am i allowed to pit that in writing ) but Neal, Rory or Steven couldna get near him. He scored their first goal. Huntly focht back weel wi a great run doon the right & cross fae Matty which found its way to Liam who struggled to get the ba' oot among his feet in front of goal but got it layed aff to Ian, who (a)bided his time weel or (b)took an eternity to stroke the ball home. Well done Ian.
The wee lad scored again to mak it 2 - 1 half time, but the other parents reckoned huddin it to this was probably ok & hoped wi the win on their backs they could kick on & gain the upperhand but it didna turn oot that way although the second half was much mair even. Steven had a great long range effort superbly saved by their keeper when it looked to be headin for the top corner.They scored again for 3 - 1 final score.
On a day when the freezin wind & big pitch made for tirin playin conditions their 16 man squad to oor 13 & losin Dan early on gave them an advantage wi mair fresh legs to pit on.
Mark found it hard it hard to pick a stand out player in what was a real team effort but i personally would say oor goalie had some great saves in one v one situations, which to be honest kept the score respectable.
I would jist like to say Glentanar looked a weel drilled side & we perhaps needed to be snappier in the tackle & gan for 50-50 balls to knock em aff their stotter
Hopefully we'll manage to bust this losin run in the league next time oot.

P.S. Good to see ex Huntly Youth coach Alan Gordon there, he still taks a keen interest in all gan on at Huntly FC

1 EVANS 2 ASTRIDGE 3 WEIR 4 STEPHEN (c) 5 SINGER 6 SCOWAN 7 MACKIE 8 CRUICKSHANK 9 DONALDSON 10 SKYNER 11 MANSON subs 12 McNEIL 14 McWILLIAM

Thanks for that, I actually spent more or less half my day watching Huntly Youth sides today, as I also watched the 15's go down fighting 4 -1 against one of the best sides in Aberdeen Juvenile Football, Albion Boys Club, and they were quite unlucky at times due to some poor refereeing decisions!

I thought I'd take the chance to see the lads (both teams 13's AND 15's), as our (Middlefield Wasps Under 15's) game was called off first thing today, due to a water-logged pitch, and they were both playing near where I live, here in Woodside. It was good to see and speak to some of the old faces again. As Mr Stephen says, I still very much take a strong interest in how ALL the Huntly Youth teams are getting on.

Alan G.

Me, Mark and Claire hav been sayin for a while noo that we're nae aggressive enuff. We dinna want a team o hackers, just fit Jim said aboot 50/50 ba's and snappier tackles. The ither nite at trainin when me and Mark asked why we are tame kine the reply was that the ba can be stingy if it hits you??!!! And there was me thinkin we were a boys team