Report

TALBOT BLOWN AWAY
With the country watching the weather forecasts and the landing of Hurricane Frank, the small band of Talbot fans that attended this friendly match were introduced to Hurricane Buffs as the Super 1st club outplayed, out thought and out passed Talbot on the 3G surface of the Kilwinning Sports Centre.
This was a game where the Talbot fans who attended would have been left thinking that a night in front of Corrie wouldn’t have been a bad idea if they knew what fare that was in front of them.
Talbot made several changes in their starting line up with Dwayne Hyslop given the nod for the patch up centre half, with Steven Wilson and Lee Cochrane taking to the central midfield. Robert Love and Mark Shankland as the strike force with Martin Findlay on the left side of the midfield.
Talbot started the match playing against the gale and started brightly with Bryan Young and Roberet Love finding space down both flanks. The home side at first struggled to adjust to the ferocious winds but when they finally settled the started to pick holes in the Talbot defence. The opening goal came in the 20th minute when Deans whipped in a dangerous ball which Agnew got a head to and glanced the ball the ball into the net. A couple of minutes later Talbot were 2-0 down when the referee pointed to the spot after a Buffs player seemed to be up-ended and Hanvey gave Johnstone no chance.
Talbot fought back and fashioned a few chances but every one of them were off target, while the Buffs looked dangerous as they passed their way around the pitch trying not to over hit any loose balls. With the wind now howling the first half was ended with the home side deservedly in front.
Talbot introduced Graham Wilson and Davie Gillies for Robert Love and Bryan Young but over the next 45 minutes they proved to have all the cutting edge of a broken Easter egg as they were repeatedly starved of any ammunition by a dogged Buffs defence. Talbot were struggling badly and the passing that ensued was poor and ineffective. They did have a few chances but failed to hit the target except a decent free kick by Shankland which the keeper had to push over the bar. The closest Talbot had to hitting the net came about when Stevie Wilson and Fleeting the Buffs defender went in hard for a 50/50 ball and as it spun into the air it was carried goal ward by the wind where it blew over the keeper and scraped the post.
The game finally came to an end as the wind became so wild the ball spent more time on the terrace than the pitch and the final whistle was definitely welcomed by the players and supporters alike.
The only high point of the match was the display of Stevie Wilson who was by far the best on the night for Talbot, the amount of fouls committed against him was testament to this.
Johnston, Lyle, Pope, McGoldrick, Hyslop, Cochrane, Findlay, S.Wilson, Love (G.Wilson 45), Shankland (Milliken 68), Young (Gillies 45). Subs not used Latta, White.