LOTHIAN Schools beat Aberdeenshire 4-2 in their first section tie in the Scottish Schools Senior FA Trophy at Hallhill in Dunbar, but it could easily have been 10-2 in favour of the Lothian side - although it could also have finished all square at 4-4 if the visiting side had taken advantage of the non-stop supply of short passbacks from the home defenders.

The Lothian outfit were, however,  the better team in this very good game to watch on a pitch that schools in the Lothians and youth football clubs in general can only dream about. The condition of the pitch at the Dunbar United stadium at Hallhill almost took my breath away when I arrived at this lovely community venue in East Lothian. It was the perfect setting once again for this representative game and it was the Lothian combine that looked the more impressive in the opening stages of a free-flowing game of football.

With Mark Boyle (St Thomas' of Aquins) in sparkling form on the right wing, Lothian looked as if was only a matter of time before they got on the scoresheet, but it was the under pressure visiting side that went 1-0 up, Dave Ballard (Peterhead) racing away up the right to deliver a ball in to the goalmouth for the unmarked Gary Patterson (Fraserburgh) to fire the ball past Ryan Law (Newbattle HS) for the opener.

The home side went at Aberdeenshire hell for leather, but much of their attacking moves came to nought due to lack of a wee bit composure. The pace of the Lothian attacks was absolutely frantic,  but it was a mystery how Aberdeenshire survived the all-outs attacks on their goal. Boyle had a couple of great efforts, with big Jon Laidlaw also totally involved in the goalmouth action. Graeme Hobb (Queensferry HS) crashed a great shot off the crossbar in the relentless pressure.

At the other end of the pitch, John Maitland (Inverurie) smacked a great effort over the Lothians bar. Then Lothian got the break they were looking for in the 33rd minute when Laidlaw was brutally chopped down from behind and the referee pointed to the spot, to the consternation of the visiting team and their coaches. I was level with the incident and I thought the tackle was just outside the 18yd line. But, once the protests were waved aside, Boyle it was who scored from the spot-kick to square the game at 1-1.

The Lothian defence did their best to gift Aberdeenshire another goal with one of their woeful passbacks, but Law saved brilliantly. The Lothians keeper was tested to the full again, when Ballard hit a scorching drive at the Lothian goal, only for Law to somehow tip the ball over the bar for a corner. The pace of the game never let up, but it was still 1-1 at the break.

It was the home side that came out fired up for the second period, with coach Ian Smith changing to a 4-4-2 system and it provided instant success, with Boyle delivering a great cross from the right wing for Laidlaw to calmly knock the ball over the line at the back post to put Lothian 2-1 ahead.

When play switched to the other end of the pitch, Ballard brought out another great save from Law. But Lothian were in control of the game at that stage and Laidlaw made it 3-1 with a scorching shot that smacked in to the Aberdeen net off a defender.

With the visitors struggling to keep Lothian at bay, big David Cran (James Gillespies HS) came on as a sub and his first touch of the ball produced a goal, another cross from the right to the back post giving Cran the chance to head the ball past the Aberdeenshire keeper to take the margin to 4-1 in Lothian's favour.

With several substitutions taken place in the Lothian ranks, they became a bit disjointed and another short passback caused problems again for Law. Amir Sher (Inverurie) saw a half-chance go wide of the Lothian goal, but the balance of the game had changed and Aberdeen were back hunting for goals. Sher had another chance but missed, then Law had to make a good save low down to stop another chance going in. It was not surprise, therefore, when Patterson scored following a good cross from John Maitland (Inverurie).

Law then crashed in to an upright while saving a high lob in to his goal, but recovered after treatment. Cran produced a wonderful saving tackle to deny Patterson from scoring a third goal for Aberdeenshire and it was Cran who popped up again in the Lothian defence to get his team out of trouble as the visitors kept up the pressure. At the other end, Boyle it was who raced away to hammer a tremendous shot on the run at the Aberdeen keeper, but it was too straight to cause any great problems.

The hectic pace continued right up to the final whistle, but a 4-2 win was a good start for the Lothians squad and team spokesman, Bill Barclay, said: "We changed our line up at the start of the second half and we looked the better side from then on. We played some lovely football and the goals were good, too. We never looked like losing when we went 4-1 up.

Our next tie, against Fife, is due to take place on Wednesday, October 11, on the Astro pitch at Woodmill High School. The kick-off is at 6.30 pm. We complete our section ties with a home game, again at Hallhill, on Wednesday, October 25, with a 6.30pm start."