Report

Photography: Craig McGhee, Media: Lee Conn

Duncansfield Park, Kilsyth was the venue for our away league match with Kirkintilloch Rob Roy, the change of venue being dictated by the number of matches (and postponements) that Guys Meadow in Cumbernauld has been subject to due to the ground sharing agreement in place between Rob Roy and Cumbernauld United.

For Talbot, this was our second match in three days and our second match in a run where we will be required to play our final seven matches of the season within a fifteen day period.

With this oppressive schedule to contend with, squad rotation is likely to be a key factor in our run in however injuries to Aiden Wilson & Kyle McAvoy during Saturday’s match at Arthurlie further limited Tucker’s options and there were five personnel changes from Saturday plus further positional rotations which saw Ali Boyle covert to the right back position, Neill McPherson move to centre back and starting places for Ross Urquhart, Ruaridh Langan, Luke Gillies & Tarek Abed in changes from the weekend match.

The large Duncansfield playing surface afforded both sides space to play and Rob Roy created the first scoring opportunity when Taggart was picked out on the left from a magnificent 50yrd pass and twisted and turned before delivering a dangerous cross which found Pirrie in space at the penalty spot, but his header, although on target, failed to trouble Glavin in the Talbot goal.

That spurred Talbot into action, and they dominated the rest of the half causing the Rob Roy defence no end of problems. Boyd was a particular threat and three times in a short spell he was involved as Talbot chased the lead. The first in 8mins when a Gillies cut back saw him fire a shot on target from 20yds that was saved by Walker in the Rob Roy goal, the second two minutes later when he beat the offside trap and latched on to a superb pass from Schoneville, however the angle eventually worked against him, and his shot flashed across the face of the goal. The third, akin to the first, when he picked up the ball under pressure and wisely choose to keep possession to stave off the threat of an offside decision had he elected to pass. Instead, he held the ball up before passing to Langan who played a neat give and go with Abed down the right before cutting back to Boyd who first time flick was held by the keeper at his near post.

Luke Gillies was next to get in on the act when he picked up a header from Abed on the right hand side of the penalty area. There seemed no danger as his route to goal was blocked but he chose to go back to the edge of the penalty area and found space to fire a shot across goal that the keeper was pleased to see flash wide.

It seemed only a matter of time before Talbot took the lead and this proved to be the case in the 15^th minute. Boyd again won possession in midfield before passing to Michael Wardrobe, his perfectly weighted pass into space was latched onto my Tariq Abed and when he passed the ball into the area, he found CONNOR BOYD who had continued his forward run. Despite having his back to goal, he had his bearings spot on and, without looking up, placed the ball on the turn past the keeper with a first time strike into the bottom right hand corner.

Talbot doubled their lead in 23 minutes. Wardrope and Abed played a short corner on the Talbot right and with two defenders chasing Wardrope on the ball, he played a reverse pass to Abed who was free on the right; his first time cross into the six yards area which was perfectly placed onto the head of CONNOR BOYD, and he gave goalkeeper Walker no chance with his well-executed header.

Talbot were threatening to run riot at this point, and Boyd in particular was proving too hot to handle. Again, he picked up the ball up near the halfway line and sent Gillies clean through on goal only to see him denied with a last gasp tackle from Rab’s captain Walker as he was set to pull the trigger.

The procession towards the Rabs goal continued with Talbot pressing high and giving their opponents no time to settle. Abed was next to intercept and latch onto the ball before using his pace to again send over a great cross which Boyd headed on target but without the necessary power to trouble the keeper.

The last action of the first half saw Rob Roy left back Gilday connect with a low cross from the right. He took on the difficult chance with a first time shot that he connected well with and Glavin was relieved to see it go narrowly wide at his left hand post.

Talbot started the second half on the front foot and Boyd had the first attempt on goal when the ball broke to him following a Wardrope corner, however he was unable to adjust his feet and fired his shot wide of the target.

Rob Roy were now playing with wind assistance, the breeze had picked up considerably and although this favoured them more than it had done Talbot in the first half, it made it difficult to control the ball, and passes that were even slightly overhit were more or less uncatchable.

This seemed to add to their frustration as they battled to avoid relegation. Battled at times seemed to be the right adjective and Rab’s winger Taggart was lucky to escape a booking for a lunge that floored Glavin when the ball was clearly not winnable and already in the goalkeeper’s hands. This proved to be a lucky break for the player as he was booked a few moments later for an equally poor studs up challenge on Urquhart that on another day may have been given as a straight red.

O’Kane & Pirrie were also booked for the hosts as they threatened to lose their discipline, and late substitutions helped to defuse the situation bearing in mind the difficult challenges they have to face in their remaining matches as they fight to retain their top division status.

Talbot made two second half substitutions with Glasgow and Lennox replacing Wardrope and Abed.

The match was played out with brief flurries at both ends with neither keeper troubled and Talbot well in control of a match they dominated. We now move on to yet another away match against Hurlford at Blair Park on Wednesday night.

Auchinleck Talbot – Glavin, Boyle, McPherson, Slooves, Schoneville, Wardrope, Urquhart, Langan, Gillies, Abed, Boyd.

Subs – Lennox, Glasgow, Smith, Armstrong, Kennedy, McCracken, Gillies, Henry(gk)

Kirkintilloch Rob Roy – Aitken, Walker, Gilday, Green, Scott, Kettings, Smith, O’Kane, Pirrie, Anderson, Taggart.

Subs – Wyles, Stirling, McKay, Ruxton, Stewart, Smith.