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MATCH REPORT |
SUNDAY 30th MARCH, 2008
U17 SCOTTISH CUP SEMI FINAL
CLOUDY 9C |
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LEITH ATHLETIC |
4 |
0 |
WOODSIDE BC |
'9 Coleman
'33 Combe
'44 Combe
'54 Lavery |
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■Johnny Coleman powers
Leith Athletic into an early lead
Leith Athletic
produced a blistering first half display to take them into this
season's under 17 Scottish Cup Final.
They simply had too
much power, pace and skill for their Fife opponents and
deservedly progressed by a four goal margin. Jason Stevens was
almost unplayable on the right wing during the first half and
ably supported by right back Antony Marziban they pummelled the
Woodside left hand side to great effect.
The Leith side will
now go onto meet Johnstone Burgh in the final at Airdrie's
Excelsior Stadium in May.
The morning's heavy
showers had passed away and Penicuik Athletic's home ground was
looking in fine condition for this eagerly awaited semi-final.
Woodside had beaten Leith Athletic in a pre-season friendly and
a very tight match was anticipated by the big crowd.
Leith started
extremely brightly and should have gone ahead as early as the
3rd minute when some fine work by Steve Dignan on the left wing
resulted in a cross being played to the back post where Jason
Stevens found himself in acres of space but could only volley
wide back across the goal.
But Stevens then
went onto to torment the Woodside left back and it was from one of
his runs that Leith forced a couple of corners in a row. The
first of these was swung into the front post where it was
cleared for a second kick. This time Jamie Burstow sent the ball
in a little deeper where it was met by the head of Johnny
Coleman and the ball bulleted into the top left hand corner
of the net.
It was a dream
start for Leith and in the opening 20 minutes Woodside were
finding it difficult to get any kind of rhythm going. Each time
they tried to probe upfield Leith's midfield and defensive unit
snapped at their heels to win the ball back and send it wide for
another attack, inevitably down the right hand side.
It was fully 21
minutes before Woodside had an effort on goal when a snapshot by
Mark Westwater from the edge of the box drifted just wide of
Mark Tait's right hand post.
But the momentum
was all with Leith and on 28 minutes they almost went two up. A
long free kick wasn't dealt with properly by the Woodside
defence and Jason Stevens nipped in ahead of goalkeeper Kieran
Duncan but the ball spun away for a harmless goal kick.
Then Woodside had a
great opportunity to equalise when James Rushford found himself
in space in the centre of the goal but blasted over when he will
probably feel he ought to have hit the target. It was a warning
to Leith that they wouldn't get the whole game their own way and
one that they heeded when they doubled their lead on 33 minutes.
 Again
the Woodside defence didn't deal with a ball played into the box
properly and as it was fed back in, Jack Combe beat the
goalkeeper to the ball and poked it home into the empty net. A
goal out of nothing really but celebrated wildly nevertheless.
Leith had the ball
in the net again three minutes later when Darren Lavery tapped
the ball home from close range after some great close interplay
around the box but the Leith forward was offside and the goal
was chalked off.
From the resultant
free kick Woodside went straight up the park and produced their
best chance of the game. The ball was fed into Kevin Goodwin in
the right channel and he strode in on goal only to hit his shot
over from 10 yards. Then Woodside had the ball in the net
themselves but the whistle had already gone for offside.
 Woodside
had started to enjoy a little more of this game but the tie was
put beyond them a minute before half time when Leith scored a
third. Jason Stevens was the provider, twisting and turning out
on the right wing before sending in a terrific ball towards the
middle of the goal. It wasn't gathered properly by Kieran Duncan
and Jack Combe was on hand to hit the ball home at the
second attempt.
Half Time 3-0
Woodside were sent
back out from the dressing room early as they sought to pull
themselves back into his match and they had a great chance on 50
minutes when Lee Hatten hit a swinging lob/shot from the right
hand edge of the box that looped just wide of the left hand
upright.
But Leith seemed determined to thwart any lingering threat that the Fifers may
have had and on 53 minutes another corner on the right was again
met by Johnny Coleman but this time his header cannoned back off the crossbar.
A minute later and
Leith had another corner on the right and this time they made no
mistake as they again punished Woodside from a dead ball
situation. Jamie Burstow was the provider again and this time
the ball was played back across goal for Darren Lavery to
stoop down and knock home at the near post.
On the hour mark
the marauding Jason Stevens scythed through the Woodside defence
and his powerful shot just missed the top right hand corner.
That was to be Stevens last contribution to this game and he
went off to a huge ovation after a magnificent display.
 Both
sides made a succession of substitutions as the game wore on but
with this game now over it rather petered out into a quiet final
30 minutes. That was until an altercation in the centre of the
park resulted in Leith's Liam Rafferty being shown the red card
for punching Woodside's Kieran Connelly. The referee missed it
and I didn't see anything myself but Stephen Noble was alerted
to it by the nearside linesman. The Leith player and his dugout
protested that he had been spat at by the Woodside player. It
was a pity as this game had been played out in great spirit and
respect for each other until that point.
As the game ticked
down to the final whistle, Woodside's Mark Westwater and Leith's
Scott Sime had chances to add to the scoreline but to no avail
and it was ten man Leith that comfortably saw out the rest of
this game to progress to the Scottish Cup Final.
Leith's coach,
Derek Riddel, was understandably delighted by the win and he
commented that they had worked almost exclusively on set pieces
the previous day. He said "We had watched Woodside a few times
and thought we could hurt them from corners and free kicks and
so it proved. We were very tense before the game but we got a
good start and went on from there".
Woodside's Davy
Gray was obviously disappointed but full of praise for the Leith
outfit in saying, "We are all down in here but were beaten by a
better side, simple as that.".
 Leith
produced a terrific all round team performance from back to
front and I could list almost the entire team for different
aspects of the game. Well coached and organised the team were
simply brilliant from the off but The Pink Man of the Match goes
to Jason Stevens. He put in a fabulous shift on the right
wing before going off on the hour to a well deserved ovation
from the watching crowd, team-mates and bench.
Jason Stevens
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