A fantastic result for the Rhu Jags this morning against a fellow division 1 team in the Winton Murdoch Cup in a match where the positives were nearly out done by a sloppy 15 minute period in the second half.

The boys started really well putting everything that had been worked on over the last 4 training sessions into practise. They kept the ball well and battled for everything in the middle of the park not allowing the Milngavie boys any time on the ball but despite all the possession they just couldn't take the chances that they created.

Frustrations grew even more when Adam Smith was bought down in the box for what should have been a stone wall penalty only for the ref to award a cornor. The deadlock was finally broken when Nathan, after some good work in the middle of the park from Jack, found himself in space wide right, his cross/shot, floated over the keeper into the back of the net.

The goal visibly lifted the confidence of the boys and the first half one way traffic continued and it was only a matter of time till the boys got a second. With only minutes to go before the half time whistle Gregor put a superb volleyed cross onto the box for Adam to get on the end of with a brilliant header to make it 2 nil.

The second half started with everyone expecting the boys to carry on where they left off but when Milngavie only sent out 10 men the boys lost all concentration, became complacent and totally switched off. They were rightly punished for the lazy attitude and allowed the Millngavie boys back in the game given away two sloppy goals.

With 15 minutes to go the boys got back to playing football with Nathan standing out in the middle of the park taking a grip of the game. A lovely weighted through ball to Kieran put him in 1 v 1 with the goal keeper and although the keeper made an initial really good save he could do nothing when the ball rebounded back to Kieran who finished into an empty net. The game was now open with Milngavie pushing for an equaliser given the Jags space to exploit. Kieran once again found himself in space on the left drove into the box and fired one hard into the keeper who was unfortunate to see the save rebound of Kieran and into the empty net.

A deserved win but the boys have to realise that it doesn't matter if your playing against 11 or 10 you can't switch off and go through the motions. It was good to see that they could dig deep when required and sort out the mistakes they made. Overall a very positive result which should give the boys confidence moving back into league matches next week.

MOM - both Adam and Jack were outstanding in the first half but today's MOM goes to Nathan, he drove the team forward and didn't give the Milngavie boys in the middle of the park an inch despite being half the size, well done.

Palace park in the next round on 26th Jan 19 at home.