Young Saints Pay The Penalty Against Experienced Hares
- Winning In The Rain
- Mar 2
- 6 min read
Saturday 1st March 2025
Scottish Premier Amateur Football Association
Premiership
Oban Saints 2 - 4 Harestanes
Glencruitten 2
Mossfield Avenue
Oban
Argyll
PA34 4EH
Kick-off 2.oopm
Referee Mr John Bowie
Two cheaply conceded penalty kicks cost a young Oban Saints side a share of the points against experienced campaigners Harestanes at Glencruitten last Saturday afternoon. With a number of senior players unavailable Manager Ross Maitland had yet again to rely on his youngsters who put in a brave performance against the three-time Scottish Amateur Cup winners. However, Saints' Achilles heel of conceding cheaply ultimately proved the difference allowing the visitors to secure the three points and maintain their interest at the top of the Scottish Premier Amateur Football Association Premiership table.
Saints lined up with Graham Douglas in goal behind a back three of Shaye Black, Ben Forbes and Matty Pollock. The central midfield trio of Aaron McKay, Alec McInroy and Captain Gavin Forgrieve were flanked by wingbacks Keiron Lopez and Keiran Griffin while, up front, young Donald Campbell made his starting debut alongside Connor Moore. On the substitutes bench were Oran Bryce, James Conington, James Ford, Innes Fraser and Rhys Millar.
Prior to kick-off Referee John Bowie conducted a silence of remembrance for Cumbernauld Colts Coach Nicky Harkins who sadly passed away recently.
The D&K Lafferty and MKM Oban Building Supplies sponsored home side got off to the perfect start when good pressing by front pairing Connor Moore and Donald Campbell won possession wide on the left deep inside the Harestanes' half. From just inside the left touchline Campbell found Moore in the box who, when faced by advancing keeper Martin Storey, slipped in his strike partner who found the net from a tight angle to mark his starting debut with a goal with just one minute and forty seconds on the clock.
Saints continued to harry to Hares back four and in the eighth minute Connor Moore controlled Keiran Griffin's diagonal ball from the left and turned skilfully away from Hares left fullback Alexander Tran. Driving into the box Saints' top marksman Moore was denied by Martin Storey who narrowed the angle and got down well at his near post to turn the ball behind for a corner-kick.
Saints' good start to the match was undone in frustratingly familiar fashion after ten minutes. Ben Forbes was penalised for a challenge on the Hares' right with Saints slow to react to the visitors' quickly taken free-kick. James Forrest swung over a cross from the right which Ian McDowell was able to head home unchallenged to draw the visitors level.
Two minutes later goalkeeper Graham Douglas came to the rescue with a fine save low to his left to deny Aidan Etherson after a good Hares' interchange on the edge of the Saints box.
Young defender Shaye Black got back to turn a twentieth minute Etherson attempted cutback from the left behind for a James Forrest corner-kick from the left which Saints defended well. The home side countered quickly with Donald Campbell racing through on goal only for Martin Storey to get a vital touch ahead of the Saints' youngster on the Hares eighteen-yard line. With Storey and Campbell both prostrate on the Glencruitten turf the ball broke for Gavin Forgrieve who had the goal at his mercy when Referee John Bowie stopped play for what he believed to be a head injury to the Hares' keeper.
Aidan Etherson got in behind the Saints defence again on the half-hour mark but was stopped on the eighteen-yard line by the combined efforts of Shaye Black and Graham Douglas. Referee Bowie correctly waved away the Hares' appeals for a penalty-kick and Saints raced to the other end where Aaron McKay successfully held off the close attention of Jack Reid to arrow a low shot across Martin Storey which shaved a coat of paint off the outside of the Hares' keeper's right-hand post.
Connor Moore and Donald Campbell's pressing of the Hares' back four almost paid off again after forty minutes with Martin Storey having to make a flying save to deny Campbell a second goal on his home debut before making a rather more routine catch from a scuffed Connor Moore effort as Saints kept the pressure on.
With three first-half minutes remaining, Aaron McKay was upended twenty-eight yards from goal from where Captain for the day Gavin Forgrieve cleverly found Alec McInroy on the penalty-spot. McInroy turned away from Hares' midfielder Ciaran Harkins but was denied by an excellent recovery challenge from Harkins which took the ball off the Saints' youngster's toes. The resulting corner-kick from the right was too deep but Connor Moore kept the ball alive before being scythed down wide on the Saints' left by James Forrest. Forgrieve's delivery found the head of Ben Forbes who beat Matthew Baillie in the air but sent his header flying over the crossbar.
An injury to Shaye Black saw the young defender replaced for the start of the second-half by utility man James Conington.
Saints opened the second period brightly with Connor Moore unlucky not get the right purchase on a forty-seventh minute shot after linking well with Donald Campbell however the match swung significantly in the visitor's favour three minutes later. There appeared to be little danger when Evan McSwegan was running away from goal in the Saints' box but Keiron Lopez's injudicious challenge which sent the Hares' striker sprawling was correctly penalised by Referee Bowie. Graham Douglas read McSwegan's intentions from the penalty spot correctly but there was just enough pace on the ball to beat the Saints' keeper's left hand.
Douglas and McSwegan were in direct opposition again two minutes after the restart with Douglas this time coming out on top holding McSwegan's effort from a tight angle at his near post.
Saints' Gaffer Ross Maitland made a double substitution after fifty-three minutes replacing Donald Campbell and Keiron Lopez with James Ford and Rhys Millar.
Aaron McKay was denied an equalising goal which his industry in the middle of the park deserved when Referee Bowie gave the benefit of an extremely tight off-side decision to the visitors ruling out McKay's eighteen-yard volley on the end of a Gavin Forgrieve through ball.
Saints conceded another needless penalty-kick in the sixty-third minute with Evan McSwegan again brought down when running away from goal this time by Ben Forbes which blighted an otherwise solid performance from the big central defender. McSwegan this time sent his spot-kick down the middle with Graham Douglas guessing wrongly and throwing himself to his right.
Six minutes later Saints' disastrous start to the second half was complete when Matthew Baillie was left unattended at the back post to prod home the bouncing ball from James Forrest's in-swinging corner-kick from the left.
With the visitors firmly in control, James Ford gave Saints a faint hope of salvaging something from the game with a moment of individual brilliance which saw him find the gap between Martin Storey's right hand and his near post with a left foot rocket to reduce the deficit.
Ross Maitland's final changes saw Innes Fraser and Oran Bryce replace Keiran Griffin and Alex McInroy for the closing stages. Harestanes also made all of the changes available to them but the personnel changes from both sides did nothing to change the outcome.
Martin Storey made a good stop to deny Connor Moore from a tight angle before, in the dying minutes, Ben Forbes headed a Gavin Forgrieve corner-kick wide of target and Connor Moore sent a shot from twenty yards crashing over Storey's crossbar.
Despite the reverse Saints Manager Ross Maitland can take comfort from the showing of his young players who acquitted themselves well against an experienced Harestanes side who will depart the Scottish Premier Amateur Football Association at the end of this season to take up a new challenge in what is now the top amateur football league in Scotland, the rapidly expanding Caledonian League.
This coming Saturday Saints travel to Parklea Playing Fields where they will face old rivals Port Glasgow OBU in the Scottish Premier Amateur Football Association Premiership.
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