GORGIE Hearts from the Churches League embarked on their vitally important 3 game sequence on Tuesday night at rain soaked Meadowmill. They have 2 league games and need to win both to win the league and have a League Cup final against Port Seton sandwiched in between. Musselburgh Baptists were their opponents in the first of these games and the unpredictable Musselburgh with their mix of youth and experience were more than capable of spoiling the Gorgie plans.

Gorgie started the stronger and were using the long ball to utilise the pace of Chris Storrie and Derek Bellany to try and get in behind the Musselburgh back line but Jamie Cormack and Stevie King were using all their experience to nullify this threat.  

Musselburgh had two 15 year olds in their front line in Mark Sutherland and Daniel Akut and these two live wires were showing maturity way beyond their years. Daniel’s family have located here from Nigeria and Daniel has found new friends through football. Mark is an important member of the very successful Seton under 16’s side and both boys will have a real future in football if they continue to show the mature attitude on display at this game.

Gorgie took the lead in 14 mins when Storrie finished off after a strong run down the left and in 26 mins he again beat the Musselburgh defence to square for Bellany to slot home from 3 yards. Musselburgh came back strongly and had several chances but couldn’t break down the well organised Gorgie defence. Right on the stroke of half time disaster struck for Musselburgh. A long ball skidded off the sodden grass and deceived Cormack allowing Storrie to run from the half way line and calmly despatch the ball past the impressive Chris Wright in the Musselburgh goal to leave the half time score Gorgie 3 – 0 Musselburgh.

The second half continued in the same vein and 3 goals in 3 minutes settled the game beyond doubt. Firstly match official twice allowed advantage in the same move and when the ball was played to Storrie he was upended by Cormack in the Musselburgh penalty area. The resulting penalty was well hit by Peter Stewart and Wright was desperately unlucky as got a hand to it but couldn’t keep it out. From the restart Musselburgh won a corner on the right and Sean Sutherland swung a great ball which was met by a bullet of a header from David Main to throw Musselburgh a lifeline. This was immediately cancelled out as Gorgie kicked off and that man Storrie hit his hat trick with a great shot into the corner of the net.

Storrie than had several chance to increase his personal tally but found Wright in inspired form. This young goalie had at least 4 superb saves to keep the score down but even he was powerless to stop Storrie netting his 4^th and Gorgie’s 6^th in the 80^th minute. Musselburgh got a consolation goal in the 84^th minute when another Sutherland corner was palmed away by Stevens but hit Andrew Burrell at the back post and crept into the net.

So Gorgie keep their league hopes alive and move on to the cup final and their final league game full of hope of completing the treble after winning the cup earlier this month. Musselburgh take heart in their best season for a while and lok forward to consolidating this next season. 

Gorgie: Mark Stevens, Andrew Burrell, Gordon Hanratty, Ian Midwinter, Kevin Bellany, Barry Batton, Peter Stewart, Grant Fletcher, Mark Maharry, Chris Storrie, Derek Bellany, Graeme Cook, Darren Carse.

Musselburgh: Chris Wright, Gordon Stewart, Stevie King, Jamie Cormack, Craig Beattie, Sean Sutherland, Paul Harkness, Will Townend, Dan Akut, Mark Sutherland, David Main, Stevie Sutherland, Sean Storrie, Dave Wright

Referee Campbell Duncan