Recap

Sun 3rd Sept 2017

Scottish Cup 1st Rd

Carousel United vs Bathgate Thistle

Goals: Weir, Gardiner

Subs: Innes, McKenna, Kapila

Bathgate travelled to fife to play Carousel United and the game started very open with both teams trying to get the upper hand early on. Both teams had created a couple of half chances and Carousel were putting balls in behind the defence. Bathgate were struggling to deal with this and when Craig King allegedly pulled the shirt of a Carousel striker the ref awarded a penalty. Penalty was taken well and put away for them to take the lead. 1-0 Carousel
Bathgate looked to get back in the game straight away and had a lot of joy down the right had side which lead to some good chances which were either blocked by the defender or the goal keeper made saves. Bathgate began to dominate play and were getting joy down both flanks with the goalkeeper pulling off some excellent saves, tipping one wide, over the bar and saving well from a strongly hit shot from Ryan Weir which was made easier as it was straight at him.

Carousel were continuing to use the long ball counter and this was still cause problems for the Bathgate defence. A Ball played out wide let the Carousel winger run and Toby Young and beat him, as he tried to recover he dived in and gave away the 2nd penalty of the day. Carousel player placed the ball wide and the score remained 1-0. A couple of more chances were created by both side before half time with Bathgate probably the better of the two sides.

HT 1-0

Bathgate started the second half looking to get back into the game early but this made the game very open as Carousel looked to kill game off. There were some half chances for both teams and when Ross Stevenson was played in at the edge of the area and drove into the box he was then tripped by the Carousel defender the ref failed to award a penalty. Looked an easy decision but Bathgate had to play on.

Bathgate began to drop off and Carousel came into the game a lot more creating chances and this time it was Bathgate keeper Marcus Havern making a couple of good saves to keep Bathgate in the hunt. Bathgate went through a spell of giving the ball away cheaply and this was punished when it was given away at the back which resulted in a corner. The cross was cleared at first but a looping header from the edge of the box went over everyone and dropped just under the bar. Not much could be done in fairness but the corner should never have been given as Bathgate got themselves into trouble. 2-0

Shortly after this Ryan Weir was played into the box which he then ran past his man who then speared him to the ground which was an absolute stone wall penalty but the ref didn’t give it. This gave Bathgate a lift and several chances were created but the Carousel goalkeeper was having a great game to keep it at 2-0. Bathgate made a few changes as they were chasing the game but as they put pressure on a long clearance was not dealt with at the back and the Carousel striker ran through to score. 3-0

Bathgate finally got a reward for their pressure and pulled one back from a corner when Ryan Weir tapped in from close range. 3-1
Soon after a ball chipped through the middle of the Carousel defence allowed Ryan to put pressure on the defence which they had a mix up between defender and goal keeper and allowed Ryan to chip the ball towards goal. The ball was probably going in but with the defender bearing down Stevie Gardiner made sure with a tap in. 3-2
Bathgate tried to get the ball forward quickly and into the box with a few corners and free kicks and trying to play in the area but the keeper was not troubled enough and Carousel held on.

FT 3-2

Performance was good overall, some silly defensive mistakes and terrible ref decisions cost Bathgate today but pleased we kept going till the end.

MOTM: Stewart Henderson – Was good on the ball and never stopped, there was a few good performances but he was probably the stand out.