YFS
St Johns Rovers turned in a convincing performance on a warm Sunday morning to lift the Stuart McPhee Cup with a comprehensive 6-0 defeat of local rivals, Kirkcaldy United. 3 goals in each half and an outstanding man of the match made it a day to remember for the Rovers.
Kirkcaldy United kicked off and their early pressure forced a corner in only the 2nd minute. They couldn’t capitalise on this early opportunity though and 4 minutes later were made to regret it as Stephen Girvin scored St Johns first goal, heading in from their first corner with the help of a deflection which caught out Hamish Kyme in the United goal.
In fairly even play Dylan Gilmour was beginning to exert some influence, fizzing a shot low past Kyme’s left hand on 10 minutes, and only a minute later he netted St Johns second, released with a wonderful through ball from Ross Slavin.
St Johns were starting to control more of the match now but Kirkcaldy United almost pulled one back on 18 minutes when Reece Mitchell ran on to a long ball from his own half and closed in on goal with 2 defenders tracking him, his neat attempted chip deflected wide at the last minute. Michael Melvin and Harry Colquhoun were combining well for United although pressure from St Johns often forced their team mates into playing a longer ball than was necessary.
On 32 minutes Dylan Gilmour was unlucky not to score his second when he attempted an audacious backheel in front of goal when a conventional tap in would surely have scored, but a minute later St Johns got their third from a beautiful free kick, hammered low and hard from 20 yards by Ross Slavin.