Prems remain unbeaten
Old Boys 1 – Thistle 1
After a weekend off over Easter, teams were back in action for week three of the League. Old Boys travelled to the Turf to take on Thistle with the opportunity to build a three-point gap on the competition with a win.
A rejigged line-up was once again required with Liam in for Jared, Reuben in goals for Terry, Ethan in for Oscar who was in for Matt and Laurent in on the wing. With a lean looking bench with Fozz and Pops backing up from Div1. Early goals were going to be crucial to avoid this being a long day!
Old Boys played with the wind and were getting some early success going down the flanks. Both Kyle and Laurent had good opportunities to open the scoring in the opening 15 mins but were both unable to get their shot on target. At the other end Thistle’s striker provided a threat with some good pace through the middle. He latched onto a through ball and was unlucky not to score when he took an early shot which hit the post.
Thistle would get their goal though when Old Boys failed to clear from a corner and a deflected shot fell to their striker who put in a cross come lob shot which found its way in at the back post from an acute angle. With the confidence boost Thistle pressed their case and some dogged defence was required from the men in red to see them into half time at just 1-0 down.
Turning into the wind in the 2nd stanza was going to make it trickier to clear our lines and that proved to be the case as Old Boys were largely pinned in their own half while being guilty of kicking away far too much possession. Thistle guilty of not getting shots on target or testing the rookie keeper which would end up coming back to bite them. They were gifted a great opportunity to go 2-0 up when Reuben played a pass straight to their striker 30 meters out from goal. With the open goal beckoning the striker missed by at least a meter.
Seemingly headed towards a loss, Stitcher made his one possible change bringing on Fozz for Liam and moving Laurent upfront. This bore dividends almost immediately when Danny roving forward split the defence with a great ball and Laurent calmly slotted the goal. Fozzie departed again shortly thereafter to be replaced by Pops.
In the final 10 minutes it was Old Boys that looked the most likely of winning with a couple of good chances to win it squandered. Both teams had their chances to win it so perhaps a draw was ultimately a fair result although you wouldn’t have thought it to listen to the Thistle coach waxing lyrical about how great they were post-match.
So that’s one round of four finished with Old Boys holding a slim one-point lead over Queens Park. Next game is an away trip to Gore for another must win game.
