Wednesday 1st February

Kelburne Ladies III's vs Troon - III's make it 3 in a row!

The Kelburne ladies took to the pitch for this re-arranged match on a cold and frosty night supported by a loyal band of fans. The girls again were very grateful for Jen Morgan's support in a coaching role. The girls started strongly with Ellise Berry having an early shot on goal but the Troon team responded forcing 2 short corners in quick succession. Kelburne then fought back and some nice passing put Troon under pressure winning a short corner which Emma Ryan was unlucky not to score from. A lapse in concentration at the back saw a Troon player with only Eilidh Fleming in goal to beat but Eilidh stood strong and kicked the ball to safety. The Kelburne girls carried the ball forward resulting in an Emma Ryan reverse shot forcing the Troon keeper to make a good save. The girls continued to battle to break through the Troon defence with Bethany Alllan winning several tackles on the right. Kelburne's persistence was rewarded when an individual effort by Rachael Ewing saw her pick up the ball in midfield, dribble past several Troon defenders to shoot the ball high into the net to open the scoring for Kelburne. Kelburne continued to pile on the pressure with some nice play which saw Rachel Bain and Rachael Ewing linking nicely on the right resulting in a pass to Christine which she narrowly missed. The young duo of Rachel B and Ellise Berry linked up ending with Ellise being unfortunate not to finish off her run when she got into the D. Just before the break Troon caught Kelburne on the back foot and Eilidh had to pull off a couple of nice saves to keep her team ahead at half-time.

Half-time: Kelburne 1 - Troon 0

Kelburne made a strong start to the second half with Emma Ryan picking the ball up just outside the D striding forward and striking the ball onto the backboard to make it 2-0. Rachael Ewing continued to pressurise the Troon defence winning a short corner which Jen Owen was unfortunate to shoot wide. Kelburne continued to dominate with Christine making a run towards the D and passing to Emma O who was unfortunate to miss. Some nice stick work from Taylor and a nice run by Rachel B kept up the Kelburne pressure. Troon managed to win possession taking the ball into the Kelburne half forcing the defence into action. Kelburne managed to take control once again with Jen Owen making a good run into the D where she was fouled resulting in a short corner, both Rachael E and Jen had shots on goal but couldn't get the ball into the net. Kelburne kept possession and Rachel B made a good run towards goal passing to Rachael E in the D who passed to Ellise who was unfortunate not to score and Christine soon had a shot on goal but it whizzed just past the post. Another scoring opportunity fell to Rachael E but that 3rd goal was proving ellusive. Troon had a last ditch attempt at getting on the score sheet forcing a great tackle from Lynn Houston to win the ball. Kelburne picked up the pace and demonstrated some nice team play resulting in a fantastic Rachael E goal to put the game beyond Troon's reach.

An excellent victory girls. Well done to the hardy, frost bitten supporters who were warmed by the result.

Many thanks to Jen Morgan for coaching and Raymond Nelson for umpiring.

Next match 18 th February against Western Wildcat II's.

Kelburne 5 XI 1-3 Motherwell 2 XI



After the controversy of the last match against the Motherwell 2, Five’s Captain Willie Allan brought his development squad to the home tie at Bellahouston expecting the unexpected.

The ever solid Ewan HP Crawford welcomed a changed line up of the returning father and son duo Ronnie and Ed McGuire, along with much travelled super-vet Alan Bryce to his back four. From the push back these guys were very busy as Motherwell stated their intention by seemingly camping in the Kelburne half of the pitch.

Despite their best efforts, the development squad were not able to capitalise on the few first half opportunities which fell to them due to unforced errors and errant passes. On the couple of occasions when Kelburne actually won short corners they were unable to convert them.

During a particularly intense period of play around the twenty eight minute mark, Motherwell won a short corner.  The resulting strike was saved magnificently by keeper David Ogilvie by deflecting it with his stick onto his right hand post. Unfortunately two minutes later Motherwell got their opener in the form of a goal which caught everyone napping, leaving David with no chance.



Half time  Kelburne 5 XI 0-1 Motherwell 2 XI



Player / coach Steve Bain rallied the troops at half time, however Burne’s attempts to get back into the game were short lived as Motherwell picked up their second goal after only three minutes into the second half.

The midfield of Steve Bain, Captain Willie Allan, Donald Campbell and Dick Donaldson (subbing with Lucas Farndale) all continued to support the defence, as well as trying to take the game to Motherwell. The forward line up of Ian Kerr and youngster Jack Jamieson, subbing with Grant Toghill and Sandy Sneddon, lived on the scraps which fell to them.

The forwards relentless work paid off after eighteen minutes when Jack won another short corner. The drag from Steve went straight to Willie, who slotted the ball into the Motherwell goal.

As the game ebbed and flowed in a better second half for Kelburne, play had to be stopped when keeper David parried a particularly fierce shot from Motherwell, which subsequently struck veteran Ronnie McGuire above his left eye. The ensuing blood injury to Ronnie, a nurse, was dealt with by Ronnie’s wife, also a nurse, assisted by a second year student nurse, and saw Ronnie removed from the field of play to hospital to receive seven stitches, despite Ronnie’s loud protestations about playing on.

In the dying seconds of the game Motherwell added a third goal to seal Kelburne’s defeat.



Kelburne 5 XI 1-3 Motherwell 2 XI



Next week sees the development squad travel to face league leaders Rottenrow and if they are to have any chance “A-games�  will be required.

Lets hope that Mr Farndale gets an early night in preparation for this important game and ends up using his stick to control the ball rather than his feet!

This Sunday sees the West District Festivals re-start;

Venue: Bellahouston

Times:

U10 - 9.00 am - 10.30
U12 - 10.30am - 12.00pm

Meet times 10 minutes before start all welcome;


Anyone who wishes to assist with coaching or umpiring at these festivals please let me know

Result        :  Kelburne  11 : 1   Helensburgh
Scorers        :  Cairns (5), Anderson (2), Bremner (2), Shepherd (1), McInnes (1)

Today saw the return to action after the New Year break with the 3s fielding a full squad to get everyone back to routine and make a concerted push for the league title.  The game saw Kelburne up against an aging Helensburgh 1st XL and the expectation from the early season encounter was that this would be an easy victory.  And so this turned out to be,  however this was not gained without hard work and a structured, committed performance from the Kelburne team.

The match started with the Kelburne defence & midfield moving the ball around quickly and efficiently to make openings for the forwards, with the first few chances being wayward as the rust was worked out the system.  Not before long, the ball was finally despatched for the 1st goal when Billy Anderson pounced on a loose ball in the circle to slap it home off the defenders stick.  1-0 it was and the floodgates opened, the Kelburne tails were up and fully committed for the game and it would be 7-0 inside 25 minutes to put the game well beyond the Helensburgh team. 

The 2nd goal was a great move from midfield which saw Victor Evrard drive through the midfield to release a fabulous square pass to JG Shepherd who slammed the ball in with a brilliant top-D strike.  A few minutes later saw Kelburne go 3-0 up when Jason Cairns latched on to an Alan Ralph pass at the top-D and despatched it in great style.   The Helensburgh team were struggling to cope with Kelburne's fluid passing moves and Jason soon got his 2nd and Kelburne's 4th from a slick short-corner move with a powerful flick in to the corner of the net.  Straight after this Jason completed his hat-trick when a clever passing move between Bremmy and Victor resulted in a lovely flick past the keeper to make it 5-0.   Helensburgh then came back at Kelburne with a driving run from their centre-midfielder who was robbed by a great Ruaridh tackle who then released Jason who drove in to the circle and picked his spot in the bottom corner...... 6-0 up with Jason already on 4-goals and Kelburne still working the ball around the pitch well...  Then in 25 minutes, a great pass in to the circle from Mark found Victor who cleverly won a penalty-corner which was then cooly despatched by Bremmy to make it 7-0 with Kelburne now flying.   

After the 7th goal, the match levelled off to half-time as the Kelburne pressure tailed off as a result of too much running with the ball from the back and a loss of team structure and positioning,  however a great first half overall from the Kelburne side to go in to the break with the game already in the bag.

The 2nd half-started off evenly again as Kelburne tried to force the game with similar pressure to the 1st half and in 45mins, a nice midfield passing move saw Bremmy releasing Billy in the D who cooly slotted the ball under the keepers pads to make it 8-0. The on 50 mins, it was Bremmy's turn to be the receiver of some nice, neat and quick passing to scramble home Kelburne's 9th goal on the goal-line.  Kelburne were on a roll and rotating the squad well.  Neil Mcintyre was introduced to right back after his forward stint and coped well with his unusual position. Ruaridh contributed with a solid game in a central defense roll, Connor and Adam where solid in their right back & midfield roles with Brodie solid on the left, Fabian contributed in a number of roles with hard-working runs and Jony Barlow, despite being redundant for large stretches of the game, made a handful of very good saves to keep the Helensburgh forwards at bay and a clean sheet for the Kelburne side.

Then a mix up in the Kelburne defence saw a Jony save rebound to an opposition player who's shot was eventually bundled over the line by the Kelburne defence.  9-1 for Kelburne and the push to maximise goal-difference re-continued.   Then it finally became 10 for the Kelburne team. A neat cross-D dribble from Captain Alan Ralph created a penalty-corner and again the push, stop and conversion flick from Jason made it 10 for Kelburne and a glorious 5 for Cairns.  Then with some time remaining, some clever inter-change passing between Neil and JG resulted in a neat pass to Adam who cooly slotted home to make it 11-1 for Kelburne.  Despite a last-minute sitter at the penalty-spot from Bremmy which would have made it a solid dozen, the game ended with a convincing 11-1 victory for the Kelburne team.

Despite a loss of shape around the middle of the game, this proved to be a solid and effective performance from the Kelburne development team  -  full of invention and creativity early on in the game, but also matched with hard-working endeavour in our first game back.  Still more to build on from the squad but also one to be very pleased with as a team performance and team victory.

GHK 2 XI 3-2 Kelburne 5 XI

 

The Kelburne 5’s made the short trip north of the river to take on GHK2 at the High School of Glasgow today. The squad travelled to this important fixture with a number of noticeable regulars missing through illness and injury, however thankfully Miles Goldie agreed to step up to the plate to boost the development squad numbers to thirteen.

GHK2, a team who were demoted from the national league only last year, showed that it was their intention to take the game to Kelburne from the push back. Kelburne’s back four of Martin Byrne, Ewan Crawford, player coach Stevie Bain and youngster James MacPherson all mopped up the early attacks.

End to end play flowed in an exciting period and whilst the Kelburne opening attack formation of twelve year olds Aiden Fitzgerald and Jack Jamieson may not have been the development squads youngest ever attack formation, they may have been the smallest! The youngsters hassled the life out of the older, larger opposition and their endeavours resulted in Aiden winning a penalty flick after ten minutes. Taking the flick, Steve Bain sent the GHK2 keeper the wrong way to score.

GHK2 tried hard to create their own chances but poor finishing; resolute, often brave defending by the back four; and some great saves from David Ogilvie, who seems to have maintained his pre-festive period form, kept the Kelburne goal intact. Miles was inspirational in his role in the middle of the midfield, linking well with midfield team mates of Donald Campbell, Lucas Farndale, and Captain Willie Allan. His long probing runs deeps into the GHK half deserved a goal but the GHK2 keeper always seemed to be on hand to thwart his efforts.

Subs James Woods and Ian Kerr rotated in the midfield and forward positions, both playing well.

With minutes to go before the end of the first half the Kelburne defence stood back and allowed the GHK2 attack too much time on the ball. This resulted in their shot passing David as he rushed out to block and ended in the back of the net despite the valiant efforts of James MacPherson on the line.

Half time GHK2 1-1 Kelburne 5

Kelburne took the push back to get the 2nd half under way. GHK showed they meant business and pushed Kelburne back further and further into their own half and it did not come as a shock when they scored to go 2 - 1 up.  What did come as a shock was that they scored a 3rd quickly after that.

The development squad dug deep, under the guidance of Steve Bain, soon finding their shape and form again, and they began to get back into the game with some brilliant runs from Miles and Willie aided and abetted by Donald and James Woods, along with good play by Ian, Aidan and Jack who tormented the GHK defence, all trying hard to create the much needed opening.

Eventually Kelburne got the goal they deserved and it was no surprise that it came from Willie Allan who scored with another of his infamous end to end runs.

Although GHK were doing their fair share of attacking David was in superb form in goal producing save after save.

A number of chances fell to Kelburne but the gritty determination of the older side, particularly the GHK2 goalkeeper, kept their goal intact.

The last play of the game, during which the final whistle went, was a short corner to Kelburne but despite everyone’s best efforts the ball failed to find the back of the GHK2 net.


Final Score  GHK 2XI 3 – 2 Kelburne 5

Player/Coach Bain reported in the match wrap up that it had been a good game to play in with lots of positives.

Let’s hope the development squad can get back to its pre-festive winning ways, their chances may improve if young Fitzgerald stops eating pies!