Ellon Thistle v Newtonhill

Division One North

Disgrace, horrifying, lackadaisical, deplorable, apathetic, diabolical, rotten, all these words don’t even come close to describing the farce that was Ellon Thistle on Saturday as the suffered the worst defeat for many a year to what can be described as an ordinary team, but congratulations to the visitors on teaching the Jags a lesson on how to put the ball in the net and basically handing Ellon their ass to play with.

Ellon weren’t without chances in the opening period. Mark Cockburn was unlucky with a well struck effort which beat the keeper but not the defender. Mark Kennedy got in behind the Newtonhill defence a couple of times early on but his end product was just not up to the desired standard.

Adamson in the Ellon goal was to be called into action in the fifth minute when Anderson was caught flat footed and promptly skinned by the visiting forward whose effort was a good one but Adamson did very well to deal with it.

Newtonhill were to take the lead via the penalty spot. A midfielder made a break into the box but was upended by a clumsy Cockburn challenge. The number 8 decided on power and thundered the ball straight down the middle from twelve yards. Ellon could have and should have been on level right away through Ironside. The big striker did everything right, touch, turn but the finish was poor.

After making the mistake for the penalty Mark COCKBURN took the bull by the horns and grabbed the equaliser. After collecting the ball on the halfway line he played an intricate one-two with Martyn Duncan at the edge of the box and completed the brilliant move with a cool finish in the bottom corner. But level terms didn’t last long, after a needless foul on the edge of the by Henderson the resulting freekick was swung in onto the Number 11s head and into the top corner. 1-2

Ironside was guilty of missing two guilt edge opportunities before the half .The first came from a long ball over the top from Alexander, which Ironside pounced on leaving the defender in his wake, and with a clear shot on goal he somehow missed the target completely when he fired wide. He was then again hanging his head in shame when he missed a golden opportunity from a few yards out that rolled across the face of goal and wide. Not what we are used to seeing from the usually potent striker.

Half Time: Ellon Thistle 1 Newtonhill 2

Ellon were facing an uphill battle soon after the restart when a third visiting goal was buried past Adamson. The long ball paying dividends for Newtonhill when a punt cleared the Ellon defence with the back three claiming offside which was blatantly not the case, the striker wandered through to place the ball past a helpless Adamson. Let the floodgates open!!!! Three soon turned to four when Martyn Duncan received the ball on the left and tried to play it back to Anderson only for the pass to be a couple of furlongs short, this leaving the Newtonhill man to run in and score. A horrendous miscalculation by the Ellon captain.

Ironside was again to see an effort not hit the back of the net. But this was not down to bad finishing it was outstanding goalkeeping. The striker plucked the ball out of the air and turned and let off a bullet only for the keeper to show great agility and fist the ball to safety. An excellent piece of goalkeeping from the Newtonhill number 1.

Ellons incapability of keeping the ball out of their own net was again made obvious when the visitors netted a fifth and a sixth. Which by this time a couple of Ellon men (who will remain nameless) seemed to have gone AWOL, leaving their team mates exposed and looking stupid. It looked like these players were going through the motions and just wanting their after footy beer.

Ellon did grab a second. Substitute McKEITCH got on the end of a Bryson ball and calmly went on to round the keeper. A good finish by the man who collected man of the match for a twenty minute stint on the park. That tells a story itself? But Newtonhill weren’t finished scoring yet either, and after another ball over the top the striker danced his way round Adamson to inflict more misery on the Jags and seventh heaven for his team.

A disgrace from the Jags and if they don’t buck up their ideas soon the might get a bigger mauling by a better team very shortly, ABYSMAL. Enough said!!!!

Final Score: Ellon Thistle 2 Newtonhill 7

Ellon Thistle: D. Adamson, N. Henderson, B. Alexander, D. Anderson, M. Cockburn (R. Birnie), M. Kennedy, S. Bryson, S. Cruikshanks, M. Duncan (C. Duncan), P. Ironside (D. McKeitch), B. Dailly. Subs not used: G. Giles, R. Longmuir.

Man of the Match: David McKeitch