Published on Monday, 21 November 2011 21:23 | 
Written by Alan Gordon | 
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Last Saturday, 19th November, the Huntly 19's were away to Culter Deeside in a 19's "A" League match at Hazlehead, in Aberdeen. We were looking to bounce back after 5 straight defeats, although admittedly, the 5 defeats have all been against good sides (3 against the top 3 in the "A" League, in fact!), and 2 of the games were only by 1 - 0 margins. For this match we had to do without the services of our top scorer Michael Masson due to an ongoing back injury.
We started the match very positively on a REALLY heavy pitch and we played some good stuff early doors. Some good link up play was happening between Euan Wood, Kieran Grant and Kieran Dey in Midfield and Scott Moir and Craig Gordon in attack. We took the lead following a great finish by Euan Wood who had taken a great feed in his stride before firing home past the Culter Deeside Keeper, 1 - 0 to Huntly. We almost immediately had a great chance to double our lead but our player (I can't remember who exactly!) fired wide. A further 2 or 3 chances were created by Huntly, but unfortunately not taken. We lost the services of our Centre Half Mikey Watson around about the 25 minute mark, he had to come off with a back injury. I replaced him with Lewis Walker coming on at Right Back and Skipper Richard Brown going into the Centre of Defence alongside Peter Souter. Culter Deeside caught us on the break and they equalised to make it all square at 1 - 1 at the Half Time interval.
In the Second Half, we seemed to lose our shape a wee bit and our heads were a bit down following the Culter equaliser. I tried my best to lift the lads however, and we still offered some threat in attack at times, it was FAR from horrendous, although at times we seemed to struggle to get out of our own half. I am putting this down to fragile confidence with the lads more than anything else, especially so on the back of our last 5 matches which have all ended in defeats, like I stated earlier, we have been on a wee bit of a bad run. Euan Wood had to come off after picking up a knock, I replaced him with Connor Melville in the Centre of Midfield. Culter went 2 - 1 up with a great finish from their attacker who gave our Keeper Scott Sinclair absolutely no chance with a flashing drive high into the net, 2 -1 to Culter then at this point!
We came right back at them, however, and we were now pressing hard for an equaliser again, and were playing our best stuff since the opening 25 minutes of the match. I made my final permitted sub, when Aidan Bowie came on to replace Craig Gordon, for the last 15 minutes or so. Huntly finally got a reward for our persistence when we equalised inside the last 5 minutes of the match, when the outstanding (in MY opinion) Kieran Grant turned home a terrific cross from the left hand side by Scott Cooper (I think), to tie the match at 2 - 2, which it subsequently finished.
This was an important game to try to restore a bit of confidence in the lads, and I think it had this effect, overall. We can now move forward, knowing that the games against the "harder" sides may well be out of the way for a while!
Our Man Of the Match (in MY opinion only) was again, our Skipper Richard Brown at the back, a real model of consistency throughout, well done Dicky! We also had good performances from the 3 youngest members of the starting team, in terms of their ages : - Kieran Grant, Kieran Dey and Craig Gordon, as well as the usual all action displays by Scott Moir and Chris Sutherland, Scott Cooper at Left Back and also not forgetting Euan Wood's superb opening goal for us!
Last Saturday's Huntly Under 19's team was : - Scott Sinclair, Richard Brown (Captain), Scott Cooper, Peter Souter, Mikey Watson, Euan Wood, Craig Gordon, Kieran Grant, Scott Moir, Chris Sutherland and Kieran Dey. SUBS : - Connor Melville, Lewis Walker and Aidan Bowie.
P.S, all the VERY best to Shaun Gair who has recently left us at Huntly 19's to join his local (Keith) Junior team Islavale. It's great to see some of the lads I have worked with progress up the Football ladder!
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