Dumfries 1s-3-3 Uddingston 3s

The home team set out well, pressing hard the Uddingston back line and developing play forwards
from the midfield to the wide channels of McFarlane and Johnston, who floated a quick pass across
to Aitken drawing the keeper out who opened the scoring with a simple reverse, assisted by
McFarlane. Further promising play came from the wing back rotation of Murray, Stapleton & Macklin,
and a stunning second goal came for a heroic Aitken from a Stapleton breakaway and some passes
from his supporting front line left the Uddingston defence high and dry.
With 5 minutes remaining in the first half the Dumfries captain went down and received a red card
for dissent. Callander stepped in to anchor the defence alongside Marshall up to his usual tricks.
With the opposition managing to find an unfortunate opening twice in the first half leaving Dumfries
fishing the ball from the back of the net. The team settled well for the remainder of the first half
despite a green card leaving them down to 9 men as the half time whistle went.

The second half saw the tide turn in Uddingston’s favour with continued spells of possession
defended well by a reshuffled Dumfries team who kept calm and held on impressively with big shifts
from some tired legs. Midfield enforcement duo of W.Milne and talented son R.Milne disrupted the
opposition attack under the direction of the back line. Still bearded Johnston put Dumfries back
ahead, assisted by Campbell securing Johnston his title of season top goalscorer for the team with
partner in crime James ‘Hercules’ Aitken hot on his heels.
Dumfries played on well with Oakes controlling the play front of his goal and fending off some
serious strikes. With seconds to go Dumfries shipped a final goal to level the scores, a disappointing
3-3 result from a brave effort by the home team sees the league charge come to an end. However all
is not lost with the Plate final just weeks away and many positives to take from the double header
weekend.

Player of the match for this game was Iain Callander for his excellent adaptability to step into the
back line after being reduced to 10 men.