Reaction from East Kilbride

PYF Saltires were again on the road in the SFL Super League, this time a trip to East Kilbride to face FC Edina Futsal, who are a newly formed side after the merger of Polonia Edinburgh and University of Edinburgh. The two sides had met in preseason with Saltires recording a win but both sides came into this match with much changed line ups.

Saltires immediately took the game to Edina and were soon in control of the tempo of the match and were soon denied by the Edina keeper who was a proving difficult to beat as always. Saltires had beat the keeper but McLaren had his volley cannon off the bar. Being denied by the bar only stopped McLaren opening the scoring for a minute as he had soon beat the keeper with a fantastic drive from just inside the Edina half to find the bottom corner. After going behind and feeling the pressure Edina started playing a more direct style to their pivot. Doing so allowed Edina to get up the court and create some chances, sadly for Edina the Saltires rear guard was a match for this and Dow was untroubled in the goal. The lead was soon doubled when Laurie turned his man before putting on the afterburners to race clear before playing in Smith who finished well. Smith soon doubled his tally for the day after a shot from Steedman was saved allowing Smith to head home from a meter out. After conceding two in quick succession Edina called a time out to try and regroup for the rest of the half. This didn’t have the desired effect as it was Saltires who took it up a level and started to take complete control of the game and keeping the ball excellently for long periods. This constant pressure soon told when great link up play between McLaren and K. Ballingall saw the latter fire home from 13 metres via the underside of the crossbar, courteously of a reverse lay off from McLaren. The dubious goals panel were called in as Kelly was on hand to volley home from on the line but later admitted the ball was already over.

4-0 HT

Manager S. Ballingall was delighted with the first half showing but was keen to remind his team of the previous competitive meetings against the former sides where Saltires had switched off and allowed them back into the game.

With his words fresh in the mind of the players Saltires wanted to start and start fast they did and it didn’t take long for Edina’s second half game plan to be undone when McLaren was again denied by the woodwork but got a stroke of luck when the ball rebounded off the keeper and rolling into the net. This sparked Edina into a vocal change of tactic which gave them some much needed respite and allowed them to make some attacking chances which Dow had to be alert to keep out. Edina then resoted to the fly goalkeeper to try and pen Saltires into their defensive third with the power play but this had the opposite effect as it allowed McLaren the chance to replicate his goal against Lynx when Smith intercepted a pass which fell to McLaren who expertly dispatched a left foot lob from inside his own half into the empty net. This forced Edina to go for broke and didn’t learn their lesson and gave the ball away cheaply allowing Saltires to go on the attack. This time Saltires played themselves up the court not allowing Edina to change their keeper back on which allowed K. Ballingall to play in McLaren who fired the ball under the fly keeper. Fair play to Edina, they stuck to playing the fly keeper and got their rewards with a quickfire double using the overload. Their first goal left some questions being asked of defensive shape allowing the pass inside too easy but their second was a very well worked goal and allowed the attacker to fire high into the roof of the net from inside the box leaving Dow with no chance. The cliche of being most vulnrealble when you have scored came into play when moments after getting their second McLaren gave the crowd an action replay from his second when he lofted the ball home from inside his own half after winning possession. Determined to get in on the act, Steedman then scored the goal of the day when he lobbed the Edina keeper, who was inside his box, from inside his own half with a powerful drive much to the enjoyment of the travelling support. Then came the only real negative in the game when Robertson was cautioned for a late challenge while trying to stop an Edina break. Credit to Edina they continued playing the fly to allow them some possession, but this allowed Newlands to grab his first of the game when he won the ball back on the right hand side before casually rolling the ball into the unguarded net. He wasn’t finished there though, in the last minute he pinned his man before turning and lifting the ball over the defenders tackle and placing the ball through the keepers legs to complete the high scoring game in East Kilbride.

12-2 FT

Afterwards we caught up with Man of the Match Connor McLaren who told us this – “I think we played really well today, our best team performance for a while which showed with some of our play in the first half. On a personal level, always great to grab four goals. After the fourth goal it was an easy enough game which we kept going the entire game”.

Next up for PYF Saltires is another away trip this time to DISC to face Dundee in what is always a tightly contested affair.