Argyll’s sunshine boys hammer league select
Argyll Select 6 Scottish AFL Select 1
THE CREAM of Argyll’s footballers routed a league select – scoring three goals in the first eight minutes alone.
The Joe Paterson Memorial Trophy match was held on Saturday May 12 in perfect conditions at Cil Andreis Park, Tarbert.
Prior to kick-off league president, Matt Armstrong, led the players and match officials in one minute of applause in memory of Tarbert stalwart Duncan ‘TT’ MacDougall who, along with crew member Przemek Krawczyk, sadly went down with the Nancy Glen fishing boat.
The league defence, and the normally very dependable St Joseph’s keeper Scott Urquhart, had an extremely shaky start.
Simple tap-ins were gifted for prolific Lochgilphead Red Star striker, Kieran Moore, in the second and sixth minutes before Kieran’s older brother Aaron added a third two minutes later.
The league select settled into the game, with central midfield partnership of Scott Gold and Scott Smith enjoying a good battle with their Argyll counterparts Donald Campbell and Aaron Moore.
The visitors, though, came out strongly at the start of the second half.
League left-back Daniel Colbert picked up the first yellow card of the afternoon in the 58th minute for a trip on Kieran Moore. Moore took the freekick, but his curling effort from 27 yards lacked power.
Moore, however, was not to be denied his hat-trick and 60 seconds later steered a good low finish past Scott Urquhart’s left hand.
The early first-half jitters returned to the League defence just after the hour mark when hesitation in the box allowed Nikki MacDougall, of host club Tarbert, to nip in and force the ball past Urquhart from nine yards to add a fifth goal for Argyll.
A flurry of changes from both sides with 16 minutes remaining saw Scott Soudan and Lewis MacNaughton replace MacDougall and McCallum for Argyll.
The league adjusted quicker to the changes and Kyle Reid and Robbie Martin combined well for Martin to pull a goal back in the 77th minute.
With five minutes remaining, Soudan’s tenacity in the box robbed Daniel Smith on the six yard line and left him one-on-one with Urquhart.
Soudan’s stabbed effort was stopped by Urquhart’s outstretched right foot but, typical of his luck on the day, the rebound fell kindly for the Campbeltown Pupils’ striker who rounded the prostrate Urquhart and walked the ball into the empty net.
The full-time whistle ended an entertaining encounter with the players and officials retiring to the Islay Frigate Hotel for the presentation ceremony.
The Duncan MacDougall man of the match award was given to Red Star’s Kieran Moore. The Argyll Select team pictured before last Saturday’s convincing 6-1 win over the Scottish AFL Select.