The Just FC secured their first three points of the season on an opening day which saw only one game from the Edinburgh Sunday Amateur Minto Hotel First Division take place WRITES PAUL GLYNN.

The Just started the game brightly, enjoying a lot of possession in the early stages of the game with Stuart McMillan firing off a couple of shots in the first ten minutes that never quite managed to trouble the keeper. However, there were clear signals that The Just were hungry and in the mood to take the game to Stew Mel and were not content to allow their opposition any time or space in the midfield from which to create chances.

This desire may have been the downfall of The Just after twenty minutes, when, having had little to do at the back, The Just defence forgot they were actually meant to be defending and allowed Stew Mel striker Kieran McGrath to run through one on one with the keeper and slot the ball home in their very first attack of the game. One nil Stew Mel and time The Just defence woke up!

After this first slip the whole Just team rallied and were quickly creating chances again with Stuart “Luggsy” McMillan enjoying a lot of service around the edge of the box. Most of the service seemed to be going to Luggsy, whose strike partner Liam Rogers was becoming increasingly frustrated at the lack of balls he was receiving. This frustration came to a head after forty minutes when Rogers finally received the ball with a yard of space thirty yards from goal, turned on a sixpence and fired an unstoppable right foot shot into the postage stamp corner which silenced everybody at the game. The Stew Mel keeper Malcolm Anderson, who had already made a few good saves, stood rooted to the spot and watched the ball fly past him into the top corner.

The Just could have been 2-1 up a couple of minutes later, when a blistering run from right back Paul Glynn saw him get on the end of a clever ball from Michael Melrose only to see his volley smothered low by the Stew Mel keeper. It was the best save all day and as it was the teams went into the break level on a goal apiece from an exciting first half.

Second half and The Just came out of the blocks clearly intent on finishing off there opposition as quickly as possible but this is football and things don’t always go according to plan. The second half soon settled into the same pattern as the first half with The Just enjoyed lengthy spells in possession, but lacked the killer final ball to split the defence and create a clear cut chance.  The game stayed at one all for the first 15 minutes of the second half until Rogers cracked another 30 yard pile driver over the keeper and into the roof of the net. The Stew Mel keeper will feel disappointed to let this one go in as he wasn’t having a bad afternoon but he really should have done better with this straight down the middle effort; 2-1 to The Just with half an hour to play.

Coasting along at 2-1 nobody would have thought The Just were likely to throw this away, but as was seen last season there is no team better at throwing away games that are already in the bag than The Just and they nearly did the same again here. With 10 minutes left on the clock Stew Mel sent in a corner that was easily defended, the ball being headed out a good thirty yards but falling to the Stew Mel central midfielder who had sat deep in the midfield all day. Instead of the usual cavalry charge out the box to shut down the man, The Just started to slowly meander towards their own 18 yard line. A perfectly weighted pass down the left channel picked out Danny Black, who sneaked in behind the Just's back line and middled for Tello Motsami to slot the ball home. 

 With only five minutes to go the same Stew Mel striker who scored the first goal was clean through again after springing the offside trap but somehow keeper Ross Cooper managed to get a fingertip to the ball as it went past him, allowing Glynn to race back and make a match saving tackle inside the 6 yard box when the goal was gaping in front of the striker

With only one minute remaining, the ball was played out to Glynn at right back who fed Colin Parker with a deliciously weighted ball down the right flank into Parker’s stride. All he had to do was cross the ball as soon as he reached it, such was Glynn’s precision. He obliged with a stunning cross to the near post for Rogers to fire a near post header across the keeper, off the underside of the bar and out off the back post. However, substitute Duncan Barr rounded off a deserved 3-2 victory for The Just by poking the ball home from one yard from the rebound with only one more minute to play.

Stew Mel may feel aggrieved not to have taken anything from this game, as it was a hard fought, evenly contested encounter between two teams who both had the correct intentions of playing good football, though The Just probably did deserve to edge it in the end.

Man of the match for The Just was Paul Glynn, steady and secure at fullback, he made up for the tiring legs of the two ageing centre defenders in the closing stages and spent the best part of the game bombing up and down the right hand touchline. Great delivery into the box and unlucky not to score what would have been an early contender for goal of the season.

Referee Chris Muir was more than happy to take charge of this game at the last minute and commented to both teams at the end about how enjoyable an afternoon of football it had been for him.