A good run out and a good performance.
A humid day and a good victory with a full Sassco team despite missing quite a few of the regular players.
Macca, Marky, Dixon and Kyle were all out. Murton’s two month contract had expired early, but we had 14 including myself. Liam “Woody” Wooton also turned up and finally signed on the dotted line after months of wrangling over wages, etc.
Other news was that Stoker was presented with his player of the season award, which I then broke in half. Macca’s leading goalscorer award was also available, but since he wasn’t there, we gave it to Jimmy instead.
Thomas Wilson were an unknown quantity to us. They finished in the lower half of their division, so I expected a decent result from ourselves. The game kicked off a few minutes late and despite Sassco controlling the midfield, the better chances went to Thomas Wilson. Eventually, we broke the early deadlock with Jimmy scoring two goals. Thomas Wilson hit back almost immediately and the game looked as if it could be tight. However, despite the setback, Sassco immediately struck back with birthday boy, Dave Graham, seeing his chance saved. From the resulting corner he was fouled and Gourlay put away the penalty, much to the disappointment of the aforementioned Action Man Graham. Dave G proceeded to celebrate by himself.
3-1 in the first half. Jimmy wanted to come off and was replaced by Woody. In the second half, changes were made. As mentioned, Woody came on just before the half, but Wayne Ramsay and Dan Campbell replaced McConville and Pearson. The second half was more open, but Sassco seemed to come out on top. A goal was scored by Wooton and Titch got two. Jimmy also got his hat-trick when he came back on late in the game. A typical second half when we were racing ahead. Overconfidence left gaps at the back, and with the changes it was a bit disjointed. This helped Thomas Wilson score their second half goal, but we have Simma to thank for some excellent saves which definitely stopped Thomas Wilson getting more.
A good win. The Thomas Wilson team were well organised, but this was their first game in, while for ourselves, we’re used to the artificial pitch as well as having the majority of the players in action during the six-a-side.
I screwed up with the price for the pitch. The dude told me £28 a couple of weeks ago and my arse dropped when it was revealed to be £57. Some scrimping and scraping meant that Sandhill’s won’t be smashing my windows this weekend as the full price was paid.
Cheers to Ken Street for officiating and to the Thomas Wilson lads for a good, clean game.
Sandhill Centre
Pre-season friendly
Sassco.co.uk 7 Dave “Jimmy” Raeper 3, Steve Conlin 2, Liam Wooton, Dave Gourlay (pen)
Thomas Wilson FC 2
Sassco.co.uk: David Simpson, Simon Mulvaney, Steve Farquhar, Gareth Stoker, Anth Pearson (Dan Campbell), Dave Gourlay, Paul McConville (Wayne Ramsay), Neil Richardson, Dave Graham, Dave Raeper (Liam Wooton), Steve Conlin.
