Victory Leaves Q-Bikes Kelburne 2nd Xi In Strong Position to Win League

Q-Bikes Kelburne 2nd Xi vs Inverleith 2nd Xi 

With the previous weekends win of 8-0 versus the "Unaaay" the stalwarts of the 2nd Xi had high hopes of continuing their thunderous end to an extremely difficult campaign in the regional league.    Within the opening minutes of the game it was clear that the Burne' were on the upper hand with being able to maintain the majority of the ball possession, even though after a rocky start where an aerial ball fell to the speedy Inverleith forward who tried to round the 2nd Xi veteran Fergus Barrows who made an awe inspiring save to his left keeping the defensive record strong. This became obvious when Mark Connor received the ball at left back and fired the ball up to the halfway where a lurking Ben Peterson touched the ball over the Inverleith defender which allowed him to dribble to the circle and slotted the ball under the goalkeeper.  With the knowledge that the league could come down to goal difference the ever so eager Kelburne players were keen to score more goals, This inspired Andrew Duff who received a long ball from Mark Ralph who passed the ball to Andrew Bremner who cleverly disguised a pass back to Duff for an open goal.  Soon after obtaining possession again, Michael Nicol who was playing in Midfield slapped the ball to the top of the circle where the predator that is Ben Peterson smashed a reverse stick shot past the goalkeepers face into the back of the net.  After maintaining the majority of the possession and keeping composed with William Adams making some adventurous leads up the lines and linking well with the forward line he was able to pass the ball onto Duff who walked into the circle, and the opposition gave him too much time to shoot from the top which made the score 4-0.  Keeping up with rest of the players in the team inspired both of the young players Niall Taylor and Finn Halliday who connected with each other for Niall to take an ambitious shot against an on rushing goalkeeper, who made the save, this fortunately fell to Duff who shot instantly putting the ball in the net.  At this rate it was clear cut that Kelburne were not going to slow down and this momentum kept going with a solo effort run from Ben Peterson who received an aerial ball from Kelburne legend and ex coach Mark Ralph, which led to Ben strolling into the circle and shooting the ball past a helpless goalkeeper.  This game was a test of fitness and numbers as Inverleith had realized that their plan on not taking more players for the bench was a terrible idea as the squad Kelburne had brought were simply superior with the ball pace around the back from Fraser Scott and Craig Walker tearing apart the inverleith front line and with their experience keeping the composure and allowed us to play the ball to Matt McGinley who on the run linked with Ewan Carmichael who calmly lifted the ball past several defenders in a jaw dropping display of skill which some could say was comparable to Ronaldinho in his prime, and thunderously struck the ball with force at the keeper who brilliantly saved the ball but left the rebound to Ben who reversed the ball back post to a fully outstretched Andrew Bremner who dived and tapped the ball in to make the score 7-0. Half time 

Q-Bikes Kelburne 7 Inverleith 0 After receiving an inspiration team talk from captain JG Shepherd at half time the team were motivated to score some more goals, and keep the clean sheet. With the youngsters in the team inspired they led the way with some incredible play breaking down the Inverleith defence and managed to get a short corner which allowed Ben to step up and throttle a drag flack through the goalkeepers legs.  At this stage in the game Inverleith began to just break down play, and had started to through Aerial balls at every opportunity to try and control the damage that kelburne were dealing upon them slowing down the goalscoring for the game. Due to this the speedy forwards of Inverleith had managed to pick up some miss-trapped balls which allowed them to get a few short corners against the Kelburne defence but these were easily saved from the experienced kelburne short corner defence team with honorable mention to Walker who somehow managed to charge out the ball and then smashed the ball up to the front line who in some clever play had ended up with Ben at back post pushing the ball in to make the score 9-0.  Through out the rest of the game there were more opportunities to both sides, but most were muffled from both keepers on the park making some great saves.  Within the dying moments of the game promising youngster Niall Taylor had found a foot within the D which led to the end whistle playing and the entire team coming up hoping for a 10th goal. After the first shot found a foot from the first runner a second corner was given. This next corner was up to drag flick specialist Michael Nicol who flicked the ball ferociously at the goal for it to come of the post and rebound straight back at him for Michael to first time volley the ball into the top corner where he brought the scoreline to 10-0 Final Score Q-Bikes Kelburne 10 Inverleith 0 For Q-Bikes Kelburne to win the league it will now come down to Grange 2nd Xi dropping points or a win on goal difference. 

As a team we'd also like to thank the umpires over the season who without the games could not have happened, and also we'd like to thank the various spectators who have come to watch us play, we greatly appreciate the support from those who have. And special thanks to the various players who this season stepped in more often then not at last minute, without whom we could not have done this well.