Dalbeattie Star v Whitehill Welfare

STAR STUNNED AS POINTS THROWN AWAY
Star managed to throw away two points as they conceded a goal in stoppage time in a match of little quality but plenty of talking points. The visitors will be absolutely delighted to leave with a point as they ended the game with just eight players, but fortunately for them their indiscipline didn’t cost them in the end.
How ironic it was that after the wettest winter in living memory we had a pitch that would have benefited from some rain as it was a wee bit bumpy after a dry week of weather, but that was no excuse for the poor fare on show. Overhead conditions were perfect as everyone basked in the spring sunshine. Early exchanges were a case of both sides just lumping the ball from one end to the other and it didn’t get much better as the half progressed. Welfare to be fair did exert slighty more pressure but they created little despite a number of corners. They arrived managerless after Grant Cairnie departed on Thursday night by mutual consent following their second defeat of the season to Threave Rovers, and there was certainly a determination about them to make up for this.
This determination certainly spilled over at times and in particular Connor McGregor who could easily have seen yellow long before he did but this failed to stop him from committing more niggly fouls and perhaps the biggest surprise of the match was that it took until the 78th minute before he received a second yellow and subsequent red. Despite Whitehill probably spending more time in Star’s half in the opening 45 minutes the two clearest chances were created by the home side. The first came in the 10th minute when after a rare moment of fluency from the Islecroft side Lewis Sloan blasted over the bar from inside the box. The only other chance came four minutes from the break and resulted in the opening goal. A Greig Thorburn inswinging corner was met by Dean Fyfe at the near post and his header appeared to have crossed the line before being cleared by Steve Manson. However the assistant in perfect position said play on and the clearance fell to Sloan some 20 yards out and he showed excellent technique and control to fire in a low first time volley that flew past the keeper and nestled into the back of the net. Incredibly it was the first time since 7th November that Star had opened the scoring in a league match.
Whitehill started the second period well and had a number of chances early on with Fraser Morton in the Star goal coming to the rescue with an excellent double save to deny Anthony Muir then Stevie Manson. Jack Jardine then had a good chance for the visitors but fired wide with just the keeper to beat. The match then fell into a similar pattern as the first with very little football played and a few running battles taking place. In the 70th minute Star was inches away from sealing the points but Lewis Dunn was so unlucky to see his strike come back off the post. With 15 minutes left the first of three red cards was shown. Substitute Craig Fergusson and Muir went in for a fifty fifty challenge and as both players lay on the ground the Welfare striker kicked out at the Star midfielder catching him on his back and the referee didn’t hesitate to show a straight red. Three minutes later a difficult task appeared to become impossible for Whitehill when McGregor was at long last shown a second yellow card after flattening Sloan on the halfway line and off he went. Despite having a two man advantage you never felt Star looked totally comfortable and the warnings were there when Dale O’Hara had a deflected shot that went narrowly wide. However Lee Wells did well to pick out Sloan at the back post but from a tight angle his driven shot hit the side netting.
As the clock ticked past the 90 minutes a simple ball over the top of the Star defence caught them out and Jamie Devlin ran through and slipped the ball past Morton and despite the best efforts of Lewis Todd on the line the ball found the back of the net. The Welfare players were naturally ecstatic but Callum Connolly took the celebrations a bit too far in front of the home fans and the referee showed him a red card which certainly seemed harsh. With only seconds remaining Star didn’t have enough time to snatch back the lead and at the final whistle the draw felt more like a defeat. This was yet another match where Star should certainly have taken more from the match than they did.
Star head to Prestonpans on Tuesday night before Spartans visit Islecroft next Saturday and points will be needed in both these matches to get Star back up the league table.  
DALBEATTIE STAR 1                         WHITEHILL WELFARE 1
Sloan (41)                                            Devlin (90+1)                                   
DALBEATTIE STAR: Morton, Wilson, Thorburn, Neill (Fergusson 55), Maxwell, MacPherson, Wells, Todd, Muir, Sloan (McHarrie 82), Fyfe (Dunn 51)
Subs not used: Roan, Johnston, Proudlock, Drysdale
Yellow Cards: Dunn, Muir
WHITEHILL WELFARE: Young, Nisbet, O’Hara, McGregor, Murray, Williams, Manson, Connolly, Muir, Anderson (Devlin 68), Jardine (Flynn 74)
Subs not used: Knight, Kerr
Yellow Cards: McGregor, Manson, Flynn
Red Cards: Muir (75), McGregor (78), Connolly (90+1)
Ref: R Anderson
Assistants: R Carr & M Williamson