Good Crieff, Saints earn Scottish Cup win the hard way
Gaffers’ goals keep Saints marching on
Vale of Earn 3 Oban Saints 3
Saints win 4-3 on penalties Scottish Amateur Cup
Following the previous week’s high scoring draw at Oban High School, Oban Saints and Vale of Earn produced another thriller in last Saturday’s Scottish Amateur Cup second round replay at Market Park, Crieff.
Once again 90 minutes of ebb and flow couldn’t separate the two evenly matched sides who finished on three goals each and a penalty shoot-out was required to decide who would progress to face Westerlands in round three.
Vale striker Peter Reilly, who had led the line well in both matches, was the unlucky man who missed the target and decided the tie in Saints favour by four successful penalty kicks to three.
Saints made two changes to the previous week’s starting line-up giving Willie Gemmell his first start of the season in place of the unavailable Myles McAuley and preferring fit again Ruaridh Horne at right back to utility man Matt Rippon, who dropped to the bench..
Saints kicked off attacking the King Street end of a long grassed and very heavy Market Park which favoured the home side’s more direct style and eventually forced the visitors to adapt their own style accordingly.
Slammed
The home side got off to the best possible start with James Webster pulling out wide to meet a second minute ball over the top from Ross Nixon. The pacy striker raced away from Saints skipper Dene Cassells on the right and, cutting inside, slipped the ball wide of the advancing
Graham Douglas into the path of strike partner Peter Reilly, who gleefully slammed the ball into the unguarded net.
Worse was to follow for
Saints four minutes later when they failed to deal with a throw-in from the Vale right level with the 18-yard line and left Brian Finlay in acres of room to curl a delicious left foot finish into the top corner to double the home side’s advantage.
Agonisingly
Saints were reeling from Vale’s blistering start and were inches away from conceding a third when Webster’s pace on the counter attack once again left the Saints defence trailing. Fortunately for Saints, Peter Reilly’s stretching neck muscles couldn’t quite connect his forehead with Webster’s cross from the right as the ball flew agonisingly across the face of goal.
The shell-shocked Oban side eventually managed to