Kelburne Men's 5s Beat Irvine 1-0

On Saturday 20.10.18 - Kelburne 5s vs Irvine A team of both youth and experience, Kelburne showed some steady build up play in the first 5 minutes under some challenging tackles from the opposition. Goalkeeper Rowan was called into action after a long, hopeful strike from Irvine had to be deflected wide. A break from Willie Hunt in defence led to some lovely play from Sam Hunt and Rory Donaldson on the right and ended up with a ball into the D which was just a bit too high. Kelburne’s Ayrshire opponents continued to hit hopeful balls into Kelbure’s D but some excellent passing between Sam, Nicholas Knox and Tommy Austin saw Kelburne turn defence into attack, with the final ball passing just wide of the post. The Kelburne youngsters continued to cope with the bouncy pitch and displayed their 3D skills to great effect. Following some excellent build up play Sam played an audacious reverse-stick shot on goal which unfortunately went sailing above the crossbar. Again, from defensive play Tommy beat his opponent to make a lovely reverse-stick shot into the D which hit the post, Andrew McGrane was quick to follow this up and the result was 2 minutes worth of silky passing in and around the D amongst the Kelburne forwards and midfielders which was unfortunately not rewarded with a goal. Irvine then put some pressure on Kelburne with some pedestrian play up the park and a shot in the D which was cleared assertively by Hamish Walker. Following sustained pressure from Kelburne an Irvine counter-attack was broken down by Dick Donaldson who was unfortunately adjudicated to have stick-tackled and was subsequently shown a green card. It was a subdued Kelburne who contained Irvine for the duration of his punishment and, on his return to the pitch, a slip from Dick led the supporters to gasp, “Is it his back? Is it his knee?” but great build up play from defence found a fit and healthy Dick at the edge of the D and a well-timed through ball to Andrew who linked up well with Jared Bolland resulted in a short corner being awarded to Kelburne, unfortunately no goal came from this. Just before half time, despite Kelburne having the greater midfield possession another Irvine counter-attack resulted in Willie being accused of pushing the opposition, in what appeared to be a 50:50 ball, and another green card was given to Kelburne. Half Time Score: Kelburne 5s 0– 0 Irvine Kelburne started slowly in the second half and a reinvigorated Irvine pressed forward and were awarded a short corner. This was ably dealt with by the Kelburne defence and the resultant counter attack resulted in another goalless short corner to Kelburne. Some issues over stick tackling and crowd control were then addressed by the umpires, although, Irvine’s number 17 in defence seemed quite happy to initiate and engage in dialogue with the Kelbure supporters. Kelburne worked hard to maintain their shape, stopping the long ball from the opposition and maintaining their dominance in the middle of the park, complementing this with more pressure in the D. A surging run by Don Tervit, taking on 4 or 5 players resulted in a stick tackle and Don landing on the floor, they must have seen his dive at the last game because no penalty stroke was awarded. A rare miss in their short corner routine led to a menacing break by Irvine but great tracking back by the fitter Kelburne team eradicated this threat. A break by Jack Nelson and Rory on the right led to another strike on goal which Irvine saved, more pressure from the high pressing Kelburne resulted in the defence saving a shot from Dick this time. All of this superb build up play was finally rewarded in one of the last moves of the game when Willie played a precision pass to Jared who, composed on the ball, beat his player to then play the square ball to Dick who pulled the defender towards him before slipping the ball to, who else, but Don on his left shoulder who slipped the ball past the goalie, and there it was, finally, the goal this Kelburne team deserved!! The whistle blew and the final scoreline was 1-0 Full time: Kelburne 5s 1 – Irvine 0.