West of Scotland Cup Progress Secured

Saturday 16th September 2023

West of Scotland Amateur Cup

Round One

Oban Saints 2 - 0 Calderglen

Glencruitten 2

Mossfield Avenue

Oban

Argyll

PA34 4EH

Kick-off 2.00pm

Referee Mr Ross Holms

Oban Saints kicked off their West of Scotland Amateur Cup campaign last Saturday when they welcomed Greater Glasgow Premier Amateur Football League Division One high-fliers Calderglen to Glencruitten. Goals from James Ford and Rory Dowd were enough to seal progress to the second round for the home side with the added bonus of a first clean sheet of the season for goalkeeper Graham Douglas.

Gaffer Ross Maitland was unavailable therefore Assistant Manager Iain Jackson took charge of team duties where the usual mix of injuries, work and family commitments restricted his selection options. Steven MacLeod and Martin Bonar recovered from injury to go straight into the back four while fellow returnees Rory Dowd and James Muir joined the substitutes.

Saints lined up with Graham Douglas in goal behind a back four of Craig Livingstone, Steven MacLeod, Captain Marc Maccallum and Martin Bonar. Aaron Moore, Paul McFatridge and Gavin Forgrieve formed the midfield engine room with Connor Moore, James Ford and Aaron McKay up front. Keeping newly signed goalkeeper Leon Murphy company on the substitutes bench were Oran Bryce, Rory Dowd and James Muir.

Striker Connor Moore had netted a hat-trick on his last outing at Glencruitten however his hopes of adding to his goals tally for the season were dashed when a hamstring strain forced him off after just five minutes giving youngster James Muir significantly more game time than originally anticipated.

Leading goal-scorer James Ford had a sixth minute opportunity with the dead-ball after he had been brought down twenty-two yards from goal. Ford's free-kick and Aaron McKay's effort on the rebound were both charged down however Calderglen couldn't clear the danger and Gavin Forgrieve picked out Aaron Moore's well-timed run into the box. Moore chested the ball down well but shot wide of Christopher McConnell's left-hand post setting the tone for an afternoon of off-target efforts from the hosts.

James Muir's eleventh minute tussle in the Calderglen box with experienced defender Kevin Crawford ended with the Saints youngster crashing to the turf. Muir appealed loudly for a penalty kick however Referee Ross Holms was not interested.

Muir and Craig Livingstone combined well on the right for Livingstone to send over a cross which James Ford volleyed towards goal. Ford's blocked effort broke towards Aaron Moore who couldn't make a solid connection giving stand-in keeper McConnell an easy save.

Normally deployed as a fullback McConnell volunteered to take the gloves in the absence of Calderglen's regular goalkeeper however the biggest test he would face for the majority of the first half was retrieving the ball from the overgrowth behind his goal.

Saints continued to dominate the early stages and Martin Bonar looked set to meet Gavin Forgrieve's twentieth minute corner kick from the right only for Gary Gillies to get in front of him with a vital touch to send the ball wide. James Ford kept the danger alive and picked out Skipper Marc Maccallum on the edge of the box for a low shot which fizzed wide of Christopher McConnell's left-hand post.

Further off-target efforts followed from James Ford, Gavin Forgrieve, Paul McFatridge and Craig Livingstone as Saints continued to look the most likely to break the deadlock. It wasn't all one-way traffic however and Graham Douglas was brought into the action to punch away a thirty-sixth minute Kai Glackin corner-kick from the left after Steven MacLeod had blocked behind a Cameron Russell cross.

Saints finally made the breakthrough sixty seconds before the interval from a Craig Livingstone throw on the right. Aaron Moore's flick-on at the near post found no takers in Saints red but was latched onto by James Ford beyond the back post. Ford turned and made his way to the eighteen-yard line from where he turned again and fired a shot in off McConnell's left hand post to open the scoring.

Martin Bonar's involvement was cut short nine minutes into the second half with Rory Dowd coming on in midfield and Paul McFatridge dropping back to join Steven MacLeod and Marc Maccallum in a back three which would continue to keep the visitors at bay for the most part.

Gavin Forgrieve's jinking run into the Calderglen box in the sixty-second minute was halted by a well-timed tackle from Jack Donaldson at the expense of a corner-kick. Forgrieve's delivery from the left was right on top of Christopher McConnell who did well to claw the ball away under pressure from Rory Dowd.

Saints were dealt a further injury blow three minutes later when Craig Livingstone's throw-in from the right was contested by Aaron Moore and Calderglen Skipper Jack Donaldson with the Moore coming off worse in a clash of heads which required an immediate visit to the Accident and Emergency department at Lorn and the Islands District General Hospital for the Saints midfielder.

Play resumed after a four minute stoppage with Oran Bryce coming on to replace the departed Moore. Bryce made an instant impact on the left delivering a dangerous cross into the box which James Muir was a matter of inches away from connecting with.

The visitors were enjoying more of the ball in the second half without troubling the Saints defence. That changed however in the seventy-fifth minute when Jack Donaldson was allowed to race through on goal where Graham Douglas, despite until then having been a virtual spectator kept his concentration to narrow the angle and throw up a strong left hand to prevent Donaldson from levelling the scoring.

Calderglen shuffled their pack for the closing stages replacing Connor McKinnon and Taylor Blackwood with Jack Guthries and Scott Kearney in an attempt to force the tie into a penalty shoot-out which remained a possibility until the eighty-ninth minute. Paul McFatridge made an adventurous run from the back and fed James Ford on the left of the box. Ford made his way to the bye-line and picked out Rory Dowd's near post run from where Dowd poked the ball home to make the tie safe.

Saints had the ball in the net again in the second of the six additional minutes when James Ford found Aaron McKay twenty-four yards out for a low shot which flew into the bottom corner. Referee Holms, whose performance reinforced his reputation as one of Scotland's top amateur whistlers, correctly spotted that James Muir had obscured the goalkeeper's vision from an offside position and ruled out McKay's strike.

Saints remain on cup duty this coming Saturday when they welcome Championship high-fliers Steins Thistle to Glencruitten in the Scottish Premier Amateur Football Association Cinema Cup first round. The outcome of the tie must be decided on the day and penalty kicks will decide the winner if the sides cannot be separated after ninety minutes.