12 May 2008 - Derby win for the Rovers
Stagecoach Ayrshire League Monday 12th May 2007
Ardrossan Winton Rovers 4 – 1 Saltcoats Victoria
Photos at www.flickr.com/photos/wintonrovers/
Winton made it 20 goals in 4 games with this ultimately emphatic scoreline but they were made to work very hard by the Vics to earn the points.
The game was played in a strong and cold northerly wind and the Vics used to their advantage scoring after 8 minutes when a corner on the left was fired in by Greig Kean and Ian Gillon knocked the bvall to Tam McLelland and he had acres of space to fire a low shot past O’Neill. Colin McClung had a snap shot on 15 minutes that forced a good low save from O’Neill. It took the home side 20 minutes to wake up and their first chance came when Patterson latched onto a cut back but fired over the bar. Winton began to take a grip on the game and McAvoy was denied when a through ball from Patterson saw him get held up and his shot was blocked. Winton’s best chance to equalise came on 28 minutes when David Wilson cut inside and hit a tremendous effort towards the top left hand corner of the goal but David Markey pulled off an equally tremendous stop to deny him. Muir put a nice ball behind the Vics defence on 36 minutes and McAvoy’s stinging shot was parried by Markey. Muir almost got in himself on 40 minutes but Markey saved at the back post. The chances kept coming but Markey was proving hard to beat when a good run from Milliken saw him feed Adam on the left but the legs this time kept out the Rovers’ striker.
Bryan Taggart forced a decent save from O’Neill at the start of the second half but it took Winton 8 minutes of the second half to equalise and it was from a throw in on the right the ball was then hooked to the back post and Graeme Patterson hit a volley high into the roof of the net. The Ardrossan side went 2 – 1 up 4 minutes later when a high bouncing ball saw McAvoy get in on the Vics’ keeper who blocked his first effort but was powerless to stop McAvoy get his 18th of the season from the rebound. The Rovers kept pressing and on 74 minutes a good burst on the right saw the ball come to Patterson but he was too cute with the effort and Markey saved. The Vics weren’t out of this game and a half chance for Donnelly saw O’Neill get down well to block as the game entered the final phase the visitors regrouped and looked a bit stronger in midfield but the home side still had most of the possession and Gallagher was unlucky on 76 minutes. Winton scored two late goals to seal the points – the first was a real cracker from Paul Monan who picked the ball on the right and burst past Affleck before remaining calm and driving an unstoppable low shot past Markey for 3 – 1. In injury time, Gallagher made it four but only at the third attempt when he burst from deep running at the Vics defence getting clear and seeing his first effort blocked before Patterson supporting him picked up the loose ball and gave Gallagher his second chance which cannoned off the bar but he had the presence of mind to tuck the ball away.
Ardrossan Winton Rovers
O’Neill,
Subs Paton, Monan, Davidson, Robertson
Saltcoats
Markey, Latta, Affleck, McKay, McLelland, Kean, Collins,
Donnelly, McClung,
Subs Hamilton, Timmonds,
Ref S.Macmillan