■ Sean Thomson (no.8) nods home Redhall's fourth goal at Clovenstone

Edinburgh City Colts were made to pay for early missed chances as Redhall Star eventually ran out comfortable 5-0 winners in this quarter final match that was tighter than the scoreline suggests.

Keith Buckley had two great chances to put Colts into an early lead, including a missed penalty. And the longer this game went on the stronger Redhall became as their overall bigger physical presence took hold. Twice they scored two goals in quick succession to put this game out of Edinburgh City's reach.

But the visitors had plenty of chances themselves and will be slightly disappointed not to have stuck 2 or 3 of them away.

It was another glorious Sunday morning in Edinburgh and everything should have been set-up for a good game of youth football. One of the spectators had even brought a deckchair with them to enjoy the sunshine and the match. However the grass was overly long and any linings that did exist were very hard to see, somewhat spoiling things a little.

But that didn't appear to hamper the visiting Edinburgh City Colts side who took the game straight away to Redhall and should have gone ahead with only two minutes on the clock.

A sweeping move down the right saw the industrious Ewan Anderson feed a ball into the back post where it was controlled by Keith Buckley. The Colts forward seemed destined to score but his shot shave the outside of the left hand post and Redhall survived their first early scare.

The home side had a great chance of their own on 9 minutes. After forcing a succession of corners, all of which caused mayhem in the Colts defence with big Caesar Hurst the main threat, one of these kicks by David Boyle found its way to the feet of Charles Agu. The young Redhall winger cleverly lifted the ball beyond the reach of Josh Cullerton but saw his effort bounce off the top of the bar and away to safety.

Then on 14 minutes Colts had the best chance of the match so far when they were awarded a penalty. Keith Buckley was brought down by the last man as he bore in on goal. No card was shown but the Edinburgh City striker dusted himself down to take the kick himself. The penalty was driven straight at Redhall keeper, Gary McGregor, who having chosen not to dive was perfectly placed to save comfortably before fisting the air in celebration.

Colts were made to pay for these early misses when Redhall stormed ahead with two goals in a minute. The first was on the counter attack as a long ball was played through to David Boyle. He beat off the challenge of Harry Macquarrie before slotting past the helpless Josh Cullerton.

Then seconds later, Caesar Hurst, saw off several desperate tackles before curling a lovely  shot into the top left hand corner of the net. Suddenly, after having competed very well for the whole of this match, Edinburgh City found themselves two goals down and chasing a game they could so easily have been ahead in.

They were fortunate not to go further behind on 26 minutes when David Boyle was sent racing clear and only a brilliant point blank save from the impressive Colts goalkeeper Josh Cullerton kept the score at two. It was the first in a series of excellent saves by the young Colts keeper that brought applause from around the pitch.

As the match wound down to half time, Edinburgh City had another terrific chance to score. A corner on the right wasn't cleared properly and the high bouncing ball was headed goalwards by Thomas Gates. It looked like another certain goal before Ruaraidh Watson popped up on the line to clear with his head.

Half Time 2-0

The second half opened tamely compared to the first but burst into life ten minutes in when Redhall put this game out of Edinburgh City's reach with another quick 1-2.

Josh Cullerton was again in magnificent form saving well from a stinging Charles Agu drive from the right but the ball fell perfectly to the onrushing Redhall captain, Scott Cameron, who slammed the ball past into the net from 12 yards.

Then two minutes later Redhall went four ahead. A lovely move down the right saw the ball eventually played into the box with inch perfect precision onto the head of Sean Thomson who had the easiest of tasks of nodding home into the empty net.

Still Edinburgh City came back. A great run up the left by Craig Sloan saw him skip past a couple of defenders. He played it into the 6 yard box where it was directed towards goal by Jordan Hunter. Again it looked a certain goal but it was saved on the line by the extended reach of replacement keeper Greg Shiell.

Then on the hour mark Hunter was through on goal himself. He poked the ball past the outrushing Shiell but there just wasn't quite enough power in it and it was cleared off the line by a recovering defender.

Redhall were also still on the goal hunt though and David Boyle brought out a great save again from Cullerton when his powerful strike from the right edge of the box was acrobatically saved by the Colts number one. Then it was the turn of Connor Walker to have a go for Star. He beat two challenges on the left hand side before curling a terrific shot that beat Cullerton this time but whistled just inches past the Colts' post.

Ewan Anderson then found space on the left to drive forward and play a great ball into the Redhall box. With the goal gaping it was another great chance but there were no takers for the squared ball and the Redhall goal remained intact.
 

In the final seconds, Caesar Hurst scored his second and Redhall's fifth when he picked up the ball on the half way line. Driving forward past tired Edinburgh City legs he bore into the box before cleverly chipping the ball over the diving Josh Cullerton and into the net.