Newburgh Juniors 1 vs 0 Sauchie Juniors

After the horror result from Saturday at Stoneyburn, even the most ardent Newburgh fan would have been feeling far from confident going into the East of Scotland Qualifying Cup encounter with Premier Division Sauchie.

Upon arrival at East Shore Park, there were major doubts if the match would go ahead as the area was bombarded with torrential rain and a thunderstorm from about 5pm. Puddles had formed in numerous places around the pitch, but thanks to the excellent pitch works done by Jim and Kenny over the summer break, the pitch managed to drain sufficiently to pass inspection at 6.30pm.

Burgh welcomed back a couple of faces to the line up in skipper Calum Geddes and midfielder Kian Beattie for their first games of the season.

It was Geddes who had the game’s first chance in the 8th minute when Rhys Sneddon’s free kick from the left was nodded back into the skipper’s path by Callum Roughead, but Ged’s couldn’t quite get his foot over the ball to trouble the keeper.

On 12 minutes Ben Duffield managed to get behind a header from Willaghan from a corner on the right to save.

Burgh scored what turned out to be the only goal of the game after a bright move in the 18th minute after a driving run forward by Keir Bruce laid off the ball to Finn McLaren on the right, whose low ball into the box was cleared behind for a corner ahead of Blair Campbell.

From the resultant corner, Sneddon’s corner was placed to perfection and Campbell was on the end to head home into the far corner to give the underdog the lead.

In the 22nd minute, Duffield was again on hand to collect a Cringean header from another corner on the right. Whilst at the other end, Burgh were awarded a free kick, on 28 minutes, just inside the Sauchie penalty area after Willaghan attempted to play a high ball but ended up deflecting the ball into the arms of his keeper Collumbine. The referee awarded the free kick and Sneddon’s shot was charged down with the follow up falling to Ryan Daly whose effort whistled past the near post.

Despite the Sauchie possession, it was credit to the back four that keeper Duffield was seldom being tested, and when he was, he wasn’t having too much trouble with what came his way as Stubberfield’s header was nothing more than catching practice in the 42nd minute.

Duffield was fortunate, however, with a self-inflicted mistake when his clearance found Fekete, whose shot from distance floated just wide of the exposed goal on 58 minutes.

Two minutes later and the Burgh keeper nearly made amends when his huge kick forward caught Cringean out and the Sauchie number 5’s clearance sliced dangerously towards his own goal and Campbell reacted quickest to take the ball round the keeper but, with space running out, his effort went into the side netting.

With time running out, the Premier League side continued dominating possession but were only being left with speculative long range opportunities that weren’t troubling Duffield.

Burgh were largely camped in and around their own penalty area in the closing stages when Sauchie had probably their best chance of the game when the ball was pin-balling around the area and fell to Stubberfield, whose curling effort was just wide of the far post with Duffield beaten for the first time.

The home side were still willing and able to push forward and exploit spaces in the Sauchie defence when Kieran Twaddell pushed the ball forward to Lyall Brown who held off the attentions of two defenders in front of him to fire a low drive towards the corner that was pushed away well by keeper Collumbine in the 90th minute.

With time ticking deep into stoppage time, Burgh’s defence was still being resolute and a header cleared from a corner fell to the Sauchie keeper about 8 yards outside the Burgh penalty area and his hopeful effort would have looked better placed at Murrayfield than East Shore.

It was from this that the referee looked at his watch and blew the full time whistle for a significant victory against the odds. After a dismal match against Stoneyburn, Andy Healy’s men responded in the best possible fashion with warriors all over the pitch, most notably across the back four who did a sterling job of protecting Duffield’s goal.

Man of the Match: Could have gone to any of the defence, but Keir Bruce stood out with a commanding display on his home debut.