Recap

Port ‘O’ Leith 1 – 12 Bathgate Thistle

Sun 7^th February

Goals: Ryan 4, Steel 3, Wood 2, Stevenson, Cassidy, K Gibson

Subs: Kyle Gibson, Reece McBain, Steffan Cassidy, Corey McGill,

Bathgate travelled away to saughton 4G for their league game against Leith, this report will be brief because as you can see with the score line there was a lot going on. Bathgate started the game with a new untested formation in the 3-4-3 but quickly adapted and had Leith under pressure from the start. Couple of chances were created with the final pass not being good enough and some unlucky breaks of the ball kept Bathgate out. Chances continued to be created and Andrew Wood curled a low cross across the Leith penalty area but none of the three Bathgate players running in could reach it for a tap in. Moments later the same ball was produced and Ryan Weir had this time went earlier and got the tap in ant the back post. The Second came from a Marcus kick out which was flicked on by Ross Steel which Ryan ran through and tucked it under the keeper. Bathgate dropped the play and this point and playing into the wind was allowing Leith to get forward. A break away which defended with a great tackle from Mark McKenna gave Leith a corner. The Ball was whipped in and no Bathgate player cleared which it then ran through and the Leith player had a nice back flick finish. This seemed to get a reaction from Bathgate and they upped the play creating chances once more. The third goal came when Bathgate were pilling on the pressure around the Leith area and the ball broke to Ryan and he drilled it low and hard in the bottom corner to complete a first half hat-trick.

HT 1-3

Bathgate went out determined not to let previous second have poor starts to happen today and got an early goal scored by Andrew Wood. A cut back from Ryan to Graham Hamilton on the left edge if the area which he then drilled low across the box which was tucked away by Andrew Wood. It was soon five when some good passing play was finished off by Andrew Wood playing in Ross Steel for a tap in. Bathgate pilled on the pressure and forced Leith to play in long, this resulted in a copy of the first half where he kicked long and Ross flicked on for Ryan to slip under the keeper for his fourth of the day. At this point Bathgate made two changes bringing on Steffan and Reece with Kenny and Jojo coming off. Steffan wasn’t on long before he was on the score sheet, another good period of passing play so Woody slip Steffan in the box for him to fire across the keeper in to the far bottom corner. It was soon eight with Bathgate having a corner which was headed towards goal but was blocked but Ryan Stevenson tapped in the rebound from the original header. Another long Marcus kick and a well-timed run from Andrew Wood allowed him to be through one on one with the keeper which rounded and slotted in his second. Number ten was an easy tap in for Ross and he then completed the hat-trick by beating his man on the edge of the area to curl in the top corner. The final goal was scored by Kyle Gibson who had come on as sub, he had a chance moment earlier but the keeper made a good save, hover he fired his second chance of the day to make it twelve.

FT 1-12

A pleasing performance and finally putting away some of the chances we have been creating in abundance over the last few games. Makes a statement of our intent on winning the league this season.

Man of the match was difficult as we had loads of scorers with Ryan getting 4 and Ross 3 but Andrew Wood had 5 assists and two goals. However, one man dictated they play the whole game with hard work in getting the ball back and also offering an option for passes from the back to the front there for Aaron Mcilwraith was Man of the Match.