POSTAL ALC 3 - BSFC 1 - North of Scotland Cup 2nd Round - Webster Park - 26/11/2022

TEAM - 1. D.Cruickshank 2. R.Webster 3. A.Baxter 4. S.Carter 5. B.Patterson 6. N.Wiley 7. A.Clark 8. K.Dowbekin 9. E.Martin 10. B.Webster 11. P.Frampton 12. S.Cotovici 14. M.Maciver. 15. A.Riddell 16. G.Cormack

OPPOSITION MOTM – N/A

Postal welcomed Division One East side, BSFC, to Webster Park today for this 2nd Round North of Scotland tie. BSFC have been doing well in their league (one above Postal), currently sitting 4th with games in hand, so a hard tie was anticipated.

Postal had a few boys missing today so had to shuffle the pack. Carter came back into the centre defence, Wiley and Dowbekin started in the midfield and Martin and Frampton returned up top.

Postal got off to a bad start when they gave away a goal after only 5 minutes. Captain, Patterson, was robbed of the ball on this own 6 yard box and the forward made no mistake to send it, low, past Cruickshank into his bottom left hand corner from a tight angle. 0-1.

Credit to Postal, though, they steadied themselves and worked back into the game, playing some nice passing football at times in this first half.

On 9 minutes, a long throw-in by Dowbekin from the Postal right was met by Bruce Webster on the 6 yard line, but his shot lacked any real power and trickled past the post.

Postal equalised on 21 minutes. Some nice football from Postal on the left hand side of the BSFC box saw a cross get flighted into the box. Dowbekin was on hand to head into the net. Not the most powerful of headers and the BSFC keeper will be disappointed to not do better but well done to Kieran for his first goal of the season (one of many hopefully). 1-1.

The rest of the half was fairly even. Postal probably had the majority of any football being played but BSFC looked fairly comfortable in defence.

Postal had a chance just before the break when a Frampton corner was met by Patterson. His header was cleared off the line though, much to Postal’s frustration.

HALF TIME – POSTAL ALC – 1 – BSFC - 1

The neutral would tell you that Postal dominated the second half today, shooting up the slope, but with the strong wind behind them. Far the best football team (although still too much up in the air at times). That said, there weren’t too many clear-cut chances created by the home team for all their procession of the ball.

On ten minutes, a great passing move between Clark, Webster and Wiley saw Clark drive into the BSFC box. When the ball eventually fell into the path of Martin, he only had the keeper to beat but skied his shot over the bar.

On 25 minutes BSFC should have took the lead. But it was Postal keeper, Cruikshank, who would save Postal’s bacon with a really good stop, low to his left hand post.

5 minutes later and the Postal keeper did it again, with an even better save when he produced a terrific reaction save to push a shot from point blank range away to safety. 2 saves of a quality Postal have not seen for years. Well done.

A minute later and Postal were in the lead. A long ball down the Postal right was latched onto by Frampton and when he was clipped in the box, the ref correctly pointed to the spot to award Postal with a pen. Frampton dusted himself down to take the pen. His first effort was saved by the keeper, low to his left but when the ball rebounded out, Frampton was on hand to keep his composure and knock into the net. Phew. 2-1.

A mix up in the BSFC 5 minutes later, all but clinched it for Postal. The BSFC centre back looked like he was trying to head the ball back to his keeper but he obviously didn’t see Bruce Webster lurking in the box and when the ball came towards him, he headed into the corner of the net with the keeper stranded. 3-1.

Postal saw out the remaining ten minutes with little problems from the away side.

Overall a really encouraging team/squad effort today to beat a team in a division above us. With some regular boys missing today, the guys who came in, took their chance to impress. Workrate was first class, attitude tremendous (as it has been all season so far, to be fair) and some quality on show when we were brave enough to keep it on the floor. Well done all round.