Bragging rights in Dalkeith go to The Just after what turned out to be a mismatched contest at Gore Glen on Sunday afternoon. There has been a lot of hype surrounding Dalkeith Town in the last year, mainly coming from their own players, but it was shown to be misguided confidence as the difference between these teams on the day was more than even a 5-0 scoreline would suggest. The Just have a lot of individually good players but if they had been playing with a bit more togetherness the scoreline could easily have been 10-0. It makes you wonder if there is a gulf in class between the ESAFA and the Fair Play league, both Edinburgh Sunday Amateur Associations, as the team from the Fair Play league were comprehensively defeated and outplayed in every department in this game!!

In the opening stages the game did not actually look like going at all to plan for The Just with Paul Brownlie and Kenny Carson enjoying a lot of good possession in the centre of the park. Indeed Brownlie was very unlucky not to put ‘Town 1-0 up after ten minutes when he was judged to have handballed on the edge of the box to win possession. The whistle had already gone when Brownlie struck a sweet left footed shot which was deflected over stand in keeper Luggsy McMillan in The Just goal. With Brownlie taking the game to The Just and Carson sitting deep and picking up the loose balls this game looked like it was going to take a big effort from both sides to come out triumphant. Dalkeith had the ball in the back of the net again a few minutes later but the striker running through had been caught offside by about six yards and seemed to be the only player who hadn’t heard the whistle.

It was a decision from he who was making the decisions for Dalkeith on the day that then changed the game. Kenny Carson, who at the time was one of the better performers on the park, was shuffled from his holding role in the middle to right midfield. The right midfeilder for Dalkeith had been quiet up till then but that was hardly surprising: with Steph Wilson at left midfeild and Paul Glynn at left back it was hardly The Just’s weakest position. Not many teams will have much joy coming up against those two on the same side of the park and all the move achieved was to effectively take Carson out of the game. After this The Just began to find time and space in the middle of the park to get the ball moved to the wide areas where they are most effective and thus take a hold of the game.

It wasn’t long before the ball was picked up in the middle of the park and moved out to the right where Michael Melrose found Colin Parker’s feet about thirty yards from goal. Parker started to run with the ball and cut across four Dalkeith players before getting into the box and sending the keeper the wrong way with a left foot shot to what had become the near post. 1-0 to The Just and that was how it was to stay until half time.

At half time, The Just swapped keepers and Michael Melrose replaced Luggsy McMillan in goals. Luggsy went up front with Parker shuffling across to the right. With Dalkeith lining up in what appeared to be a 4-5-1 formation it meant The Just could push both full backs up onto the Dalkeith midfeild as not a lot of cover was required at the back. James Glynn at centre half for The Just walked away with the man of the match award and with him being on fine form there wasn’t much for any of the other defenders to look out for. This meant at times The Just were playing a 2-4-4 formation and it wasn’t long before the floodgates started to open. Luggsy McMillan made an immediate impact, coming out of goals to score a second half hat-trick before Parker again rounded off the scoring for an emphatic victory for The Just. There were a lot of good individual performances from The Just and they seemed to get stronger and stronger as the game went on. Special mention must go to Luggsy McMillan for his second half hat-trick, Stephen McGuire who started quietly but by the end of the game looked like he was the only player in the midfield, Colin Parker whose pace and power is a massive asset to The Just team whether he is playing out wide or up front and Guy Cairney whose ball for Luggsy’s third goal was nothing short of sublime.