YFS
Newcraighall Leith Vics hosted Broomhill SC at Ainsley park. With the two sides competing for a chance to contest the U14's Scottish Cup final.
Brandon Blair sparked the game to life on 3 minutes. John Robertson showed great determination to win the ball in the middle of the park and when he played it short to Bathgate he produced a defence splitting pass which released the speedy Blair down the left side. A fantastic turn of pace from Blair who left the Broomhill defenders trailing in his wake. A good cross was to follow but there were no takers in the box and Newcraighall couldn’t open the scoring.
With eight minutes played it was Broomhill who were starting to show dominance in terms of possession. Perhaps this growing confidence was the reason behind an audacious effort from Broomhill’s Gio Vezza. Strolling down the left flank for his team Vezza fired a powerful effort goalwards from a good 30 yards and forced Tyler McGee in the Newcraighall goal in to a smart save. The resulting corner was met by James Little John but his effort was blocked and the score remained level.
Broomhill continued to assert their dominance in the coming minutes. With just over 10 minutes played the Broomhill lads were in fine form putting together a brilliant passing move. Calum Hughes linked well with Matthew long, who’s chipped pass was well met by Chris Melvin, the forward showing great skill to turn and dink the ball for the advancing Mitchell Donohoe, but for a smart save from Tyler McGee who dived on to the ball after coming out smartly Broomhill could have had the lead.
It must be noted that despite Broomhill’s dominance in possession Newcraighall’s defence was an eye catching unite. Communication was constant and Tyler McGee in goal had good command of his box. With around 15 minutes played the game changing moment that looked on the cards did indeed arrive.
When Sean Ward of Newcraighall stepped up to take a free kick within his own half few would have predicted what would happen next. With no disrespect to Newcraighall it's fair to say that Broomhill had been putting together better passing moves up until this point in the game. This was to change however when Ward played what looked like a simple ball forward to Bathgate. Bathgate returned the ball to Ward who found Gallantes, the forward jinked away from the challenge of Broomhill’s Littlejohn before returning the ball to Bathgate who sprayed a beautiful diagonal ball out wide to Josh Sharkey. Sharkey stole the show with a lovely threaded ball down the flank for Jordan Daly. The wideman oblidged with a quick ball in to the box after some nice footwork and the bobbling ball found its way to Brandon Blair who prodded home the opener for Newcraighall on 16 minutes.
Far from being knocked for confidence Broomhill responded almost instantly. With just 2 minutes gone since Newcraighall’s goal it was to be Broomhill’s Jack Muir who would level the game. A cross come shot from the left hand side evaded the attention of Tyler McGee and found its way in to the back of the net to make the score 1-1 just before the 20 minute mark.
The final 15 of the half were to be dominated by Newcraighall who can count themselves unlucky not to have been going in to the half time break with the score 2-1 or 3-1. A mixture of bad luck, as a bulleted header zipped just wide of the post for Gallantes after a good cross from Blair and superb defending from John Reid in defence for Broomhill as he cleared a dangerous cross this time from Gallantes, meant the score remained 1-1 going in to the interval.
