SC United Edinburgh joined the Edinburgh SAFA at the beginning of the 2007/8 season and since then they have turned in a series of impressive performances that deservedly see them leading the Second Division.    SCE maintained their form with a 3-2 victory over Longstone Welfare at the Jack Kane Centre, although it was a close game in which they only secured victory by a single goal.

The home team started lively and Przemyslaw Szczecinski crossed the ball to Piotr Motyl, but his powerful shot flew over the bar. They continued their onslaught and it they opened the scoring after twenty minutes. After winning a corner, the ball was deflected out of the box and fell to Captain Lukasz Zuk, who didn’t hesitate and his powerful shot hit the back of the net.

United kept pushing forward and in the 30^th minute Bartosz Kasprzak found himself in the box with plenty of time to spare but was fouled and the penalty was given.  SUE keeper Dawid Paterek was the executioner and with a fierce shot to put his team 2-0 ahead.  

Just before half time, Kasprzak forged ahead again and the Longstone defence managed to clear but the resulting long throw in by Nitka was headed on by Maciej Szczepanski into the middle of the box where a confused Longstone defense made a mistake and put the ball right into their own net.  3-0 at half time.

In the second half the picture was the much the same with the Poles attacking with pace and creativity. Szczecinski had a chance to score but he missed in a one-on-one.  On the hour, Marcin Grzedowski replaced by Piotr Dziegiel but this appeared to spur Longstone on and they were awarded a penalty and Kenny Halcrow duly stepped up and brought the deficit back to 3-1.  SCE made two further changes with Kamil Pastusiak replacing Szczepanski and Pawel Szpyndra coming on for Szczecinski.

Longstone continued to press on and keeper Pater was adjudged to have fouled Halcrow and as he already had one yellow card he was sent off.  Nitka took the gloves but he was powerless to stop Halcrow’s spot kick.

Although SCE had to play out the last minutes one man down, but they stood firm and recorded a 3-2 victory.

Manager David Kowalczyk said after the game, “We didn’t give away the leader spot in the table and that is our goal for this season. The most important matter is to gain promotion to the First Division. I am very pleased with boys - we are making huge steps in our progress in the game and we learn a lot from our opponents. We wish to enjoy our game and prove that we are able to challenge teams from higher leagues.”

Elsewhere in a depleted fixture list due to the Edinburgh derby, Mayfield & Easthouses were in a rampant scoring mood and put 12 past The Just thanks to Alan Reid(4), Martin Hughes(3), Douglas Morrison (2) and singles from Grant Gavin, Mark Lawrence and James Glodek.  However, this was surpassed by Lothian Star who beat The Stand 14-1 with goals coming from Jamie Glyn(4), Barry Nisbet(2), Jason Sharp(2), Gordon Blyth(2), Andrew Flood(2), Dean Krumins and Andrew Flood.

Amongst the highlights tomorrow are the meeting of Premier Castlevale and Cramond Star at the Jack Kane Centre and in the Second Division, the top two meet when SC United Edinburgh play Athletico Star at the Mayfield Complex.