Ellon Thistle v Rattrays XI

AFC Trophy 3rd Round

For the sixth week on the bounce Thistle were playing in cup competition. What team would turn up for this A.F.C Trophy tie after an irregular run of form in the previous six games? But there was a change to the usual home routine, as Ellon warmed up in the clubhouse end. Would this be an omen?

The first half started as it was to go on for the duration with Thistle on the attack. The Rattrays defence was to be ripped apart on numerous occasions. The first of which was when a defence splitting ball was threaded through to Mikey Wild who would have been clean through but the ball had a bit too much poke on it.

It wasn’t long before The Jags were in the lead, albeit in outlandish circumstances. Mike Gibson chased down the defender and won a throw, and from the throw GIBSON received the ball and swung in the cross from the left hand touchline only to see it avoid every head in the box and skew into the bottom corner. The keeper didn’t help his teams cause by going down in instalments, but a goals a goal and Ellon were in the lead. Gibson was to blot his copy book soon after when he had a verbal conflict with the referee and found himself in the book. Sheer dunderheadedness by the midfield man who acted like a brat.

The one goal lead was doubled when captain Birnie played a ball with great veracity to WILD who skinned the defender to thump the ball past the keeper from twelve yards. Then the game looked to be out of sight when Thistle’s mowhawked striker IRONSIDE skelped the pigskin past the hapless keeper for a third time in twenty minutes.

Ironside was to go close again when he hit a left pegged snapshot just past the post. Martyn Duncan came close with a header after great play from a corner lead to him finding himself heading wide. Gibson was to be kicking himself when he should have doubled his tally only to miscue what looked to be a certain goal only for his “biscuit tin” head to let him down badly. This game was looking like turning into a massacre.

The Jags were to hit the net again before the half time whistle when Martyn Duncan defended solidly in his own box and ran twenty five yards and stabbed a ball through to IRONSIDE toyed with the keeper and dinked the ball over him. The Jags looking convincing and even the sun was trying to break through the clouds to get a gander of this destruction.

Half-Time: Ellon Thistle 4 Rattrays XI 0

The start of the second half looked like a team who thought they were home and dry playing a team who had resigned themselves to defeat and there was little action in the first twenty minutes apart from some dodgy offside decisions and an Ironside penalty claim.

Then The Jags stopped playing as a team and Rattrays capitalized with a goal from a corner. This seemed to put a bit of fire into the bellies of the Aberdeen mob. They almost halved the deficit straight away when the strikers shot was heading in only for Henderson to make last ditch goal line clearance. This sparked a reaction from the Thistle camp who swapped Birnie for Beaton.

The four goal lead was reinstated when Ellon were awarded a penalty when Ironside was chopped down like a fir tree at Christmas. IRONSIDE brushed himself down and slotted the penalty home with panache. The man with the “Clubber Lang hair cut” had knocked out Rattrays with his hatrick goal.

Martyn Duncan found himself on the end of a Wild ball but was beaten to it by the keeper who gathered only to be attacked by the Ellon man who attempted to give him a “full nelson”. A bizarre moment by Thistle’s midfield bantam.

The goal scoring wasn’t to end there, Wild found himself free on the right and he unselfishly squared to LONGMUIR who bamboozled the keeper with a dummy (or did he?) and side footed in. But Ellon were to be annoyed with the criminal defending that put a dampener on the result. The defence already had previous convictions in the afternoon and were to slip up again and let Rattrays in for a second in the dying embers of the game.

Final Score: Ellon Thistle 6 Rattrays XI 2

Ellon Thistle: D Adamson, B Alexander, N Henderson, D Anderson, M Duncan, S Cruickshanks, C Duncan (D McGill), M Gibson, R Birnie (S Beaton), P Ironside (R Longmuir), M Wild. Subs Not Used: K Duncan, A MacLean