Two from two for the Prems
Old Boys 1 – Queens Park – 0
Week two of the competition saw the Prems travelling to Surrey Park to take on Queens Park. After a 6-2 victory over Gore in the first round the guys had some confidence but were wary of a Park team which had tipped them up in preseason and were coming off successive wins over Thistle. It was another excellent day on the weather front with little wind and plenty of April sun.
A couple of changes for this fixture with Matt, Liam and Hayden unavailable for the match alongside Hamish still injured. Antoine made a return alongside Oscar ‘oven smasher’ Patterson making a run on appearance for the Club. The game started at a fierce pace with both teams straight onto attack. Old Boys making some gains via their wide men and some dangerous balls delivered into the box. Park took a more direct route and Kris and Dave were kept busy in the middle.
The matches opening, and decisive goal came from a corner with Danny ‘triple denim’ Rosel showing his skills in the air as he powered home a top corner header. The men in red were buoyed by this and pushed forward once again. Dave had a cracking shot which stung the cross bar and but for the fact it is a square bar rather than round I expect it would have gone in.
Terence was staying relatively untroubled in the Old Boys goal but was called on to make an excellent double save as he first got down low to cut out a cross but then had to throw his body on the ball as the striker was looming for a tap in.
Into the break with a 1-0 lead we knew we weren’t finished yet and were keen to press on for more goals. The defence were playing well and restricting Park to longer range efforts but there was no time to relax.
Shortly after the restart Jared found some space down the left and eventually provided a perfect cutback for Kyle to tap in. Unfortunately, the ball got stuck in his feet and his tame effort was stopped on the line by a defender. Seamus was continuing to deliver some good balls into the box from the right and the team were unlucky not to score from a couple of these with the goalie making some heroic saves and some excellent last ditch defending.
After failing to kill off the game on several occasions Park almost pulled back a goal close to fulltime as Terry was forced into a good left handed save. Eventually the ref blew for fulltime to the elation of the boys.
Its very early in the season given all teams will meet four times but this was an important win for the guys and ensures Larry drinks with us for another week at least. Easter break next weekend but after that we have Thistle in the final fixture of the round. The boys will be looking for another win to end the round on max points at the top of the table.
