Ellon Thistle v Halliburton

Division Two East

Ellon are making serious hard work of their promotion bid and this latest defeat did not do them any favours. The finishing line is in sight but are they going to stumble across it or even cross it at all. Going on this latest misadventure things are looking bleak.

The Jags could have taken the lead in the early stages when a cross was fired into the box, the defender looked a bit edgy and headed just past his own post. Almost a calamitous moment for the stopper. Ellon were on the ascendancy in this match and should have had the ball in the net when McKeitch headed over from a Birnie cross. Then another piece of woeful finishing from Callum Duncan followed when he put the ball over the bar from five yards out. The ball actually came down with snow on it. Next up was Birnie to waste a chance after Cruickshanks had won the ball with a challenge that read 8.4 on the Richter scale with the ball ending up at the Thistle captains feet but he dithered on the ball and chance was gone.

Halliburton were unlucky not to awarded a penalty in the fifteenth minute when their gangly striker was upended in the box but the David Dickinson coloured ref said his attempt to win a pen were “cheap as chips”.

Ellon had vast amounts of the possession in the first half but seemed to be trying to walk the ball into the net. This being proved by Mikey Wild hitting Ellon’s first shot on target in the forty first minute. The Jags went in at half time without taking advantage of the wind that was attacking the Meadows.

Half Time: Ellon Thistle 0 Halliburton 0

The second half started badly for Ellon’s debaser Cruickshanks when he was lucky to have his head still attached to his body after taking a sore one to the moosh. The Halli defender caught the ball as bonnie as you like on the volley and Cruickshanks was four yards away and in the flight path of the ball. Boom! The Ellon man was almost decapitated.

Things didn’t get much better as Thistle’s goal took a pounding. A thumping effort from a Halli midfielder hit the right hand post and ricocheted away from goal to a Halli player who drove the ball back across the goal with the ball cannoning off of the left hand post and cleared to safety. But the pressure was amplifying and Halli really should have scored when the number 7 headed over from a few yards. The woodwork was rattled again when a corner found the Halli striker’s head but he steered it off the crossbar.

The goal did eventually come after a mammoth kick from the visiting goalkeeper bounced between defender and keeper leaving the striker to slot the ball past Thistle’s veteran stopper Stevie High. There was confusion between keeper and defender after a poor shout of “keepers ball” was made by a Thistle outfielder. A schoolboy error.

The Jags did get back into the game to an extent after going down with Anderson going on a jungle run but his finish wasn’t great. Birnie was then guilty of missing a sitter. His effort from close range effort could only be described as triple h, high, hashed and hopeless.

They did find an equaliser though. Substitute Beaton skinned his man alive on the touchline and found McKeitch who drove the ball across goal with venom and finding McGILL who finished with the aid of the post.

But the joy was short lived when less than a minute later Halli took the lead again through an absolute wonder strike. A slack clearance from High landed at the midfielder and on the half volley he produced a strike that was like a shot from a blunderbuss which flew the full fifty to fifty five yards finding the net without a bounce. Hats off to a great strike.

Then straight away Halli put the game to bed with a killer third which condemned the Jags to their second defeat on the spin. Ellon bottle seems to be disappearing quickly during what Sir Alex calls “Squeaky bum time”.

Final Score: Ellon Thistle 1 Halliburton 3

Ellon Thistle: S. High, B. Alexander, N. Henderson, D. Anderson, M. Duncan (A. MacLean), M. Cockburn (S. Beaton), C. Duncan, S. Cruickshanks, R. Birnie (D. McGill), D. McKeitch, M. Wild. Unused Subs: M. Gibson, R. Longmuir