Pupils’ six-goal sizzler in new season opener
Campbeltown Pupils 6 Dunoon 2
DESPITE an own goal, the Pupils dominated Dunoon at Kintyre Park in their first game in the Premier One division.
The home side secured the win with a first Pupils’ goal from substitute Robbie Dudley.
An extraordinary first 10 minutes saw the McFadyens-sponsored Campbeltown Pupils fall two goals behind Dunoon who0 looked equally shocked at what they had achieved, a rampant start that owed more to inexplicable defending than their own studied play.
The first goal arrived from the kick off. It was a well-worked move which saw the opposition centre forward beat the advancing Craig Lamont with a clever lob opening the scoring in 30 seconds.
An amazing passage of play saw the home side dominate possession for the next 10 minutes, creating chance after chance to recover from a horrendous start to the new league campaign.
With the visitors pinned in their own half, what followed had the home support rubbing their eyes in disbelief, as a team completely starved of possession suddenly broke upfield and scored a comic-cuts second goal. The home ranks panicked and, while attempting to clear their lines, the ball was driven by one defender against another for an own goal.
The home side soon narrowed the defi- cit with a thunder- ous deadball strike from Martin McCal- lum, who then lofted a free kick into a packed goalmouth, where Ryan Deans rose above his marker to equalise with a smart header from 10 yards.
Pupils took the lead when Scott Souden cut in from the right wing to send a low strike past the last line of defence and into the net’s bottom corner.
As Dunoon tried to limit the damage before the break, the ball broke kindly for Sary Rahma and the lightning-quick forward wasted no time dispatching a firm strike into the roof of the net from close range.
It was an incidentpacked first half, but a rather strange start to what was fast becoming a bit of a Pupils’ procession.
It took more than 30 second-half minutes to finally see off Dunoon, but there was no way back for the visitors when Sary Rahma scored a fifth from close range, an identical strike to his earlier effort.
To his obvious delight, substitute Robbie Dudley scored with a header from close range in the closing minutes, his first for the club, but well deserved as his movement off the ball created the chance in the first place.
Dunoon had a number of fine players in their ranks and will prove a tough nut to crack when the corresponding fixture comes round later in the season.
After an unusual start, the Pupils can be happy with their performance, an exercise in recovery and three points gained, which in the end is what it’s all about.