U20s v St Mirren
Monday, 11th Jan 2016SPFL Development League: Monday 11th January 2016, 1.30pm kick off at Broadwood
With the club's attentions on the William Hill Scottish Cup replay on Tuesday, this Development League fixture was fulfilled by a very young Pars side augmented by coach John Potter at centre half and keeper David Hutton who was serving a two match suspension from first team duties.
St Mirren were in charge from the kick off and pressed the Pars goal immediately. Johnny Galloway headed away the first threat and Hutton was soon called upon to make a save. Orru blocked a Jaison McGrath shot from distance in 14 minutes before two minutes later Josh BEATTIE scored the opener. The damage was caused from Lewis Morgan's cross, McGrath got a chance that came back out for the Saints number four to net. 0-1
McClair cleared another dangerous attack. After a couple of offside decisions against the Fifers they did come close from the Trialist's free kick. Keeper Dan Will dropped the ball on goal line but unfortunately there were no takers and the keeper recovered.
When Hutton tipped the ball over the bar, St Mirren earned another corner when that was cleared out and a shot was returned over the crossbar. A second Saints goal came as a result of a mistake, Lewis MORGAN putting his side two up on 27 minutes.
The Pars defence was kept alert but St Mirren fired wide and Potter cleared a dangerous ball in from the left. When the 'home' side did create an opening from a good pass from Robbie Crawford, PJ Crossan was deemed offside.
A poor clearance was punished two minutes from the break and CUDDIHY stuck the ball home.
Half time: Dunfermline 0 St Mirren 3
Hutton was kept busy again from the restart. The keeper turned a shot around his post and had a good save from Kyle McAllister. Crossan had a rare Dunfermline chance that he sent just wide left before CUDDIHY added St Mirren's fourth in 64 minutes.
Will saved from the Trialist and Dunfermline's consolation was a 75th minute goal from a corner on the right. Trialist sent the ball in and POTTER's header bulleted into the Saints net. 1-4
The coach felt that his team needs to do better and told the website that the performance was just not good enough.
"We never started the game properly, they were the better team in the first half. We just never competed, never matched them, never passed the ball. The three goals came from three crosses into the box and we never cleared our lines properly.
"The second half was an improvement but it just wasn't good enough. We need to compete better and do better all over the pitch. It was a learning curve for us."
The coach praised his subs who appeared to make an impact when they came on. The introduction of John James Henderson and Scott Sutherland meant that James Thomas dropped back into midfield.
"They definitely made an improvement. It is hard because we only had 12 outfield players today. Two of them came from their prelims and we were right down on numbers."
Potts was pleased to have 17 year old Evan Horne as a trialist:-
"He has just left Dundee United and he has been in training with us for the last ten days. I have seen him play and quite liked him. I thought he did okay, he is probably not fully match fit yet. He would be one for the future and there might be something in that, we will just wait and see."
The Trialist sent the ball in from the corner at which the 36 year old coach scored from, he commented:-
"It was a great goal! It didn't really alter the result my performance could have been better as well. The whole team are a better than that but we sat off in the first half and it is something that we have to learn from."
SUBS NOT USED: Jack McClair, Cammy Gill (GK)
SCORERS: Potter (75)
ST MIRREN: Dan Wilks, Mark Morrison, Jordan Stewart, Josh Beattie, Jack Harrison, Daren Whyte, Lewis Morgan, Barry Cuddihy (Conor O'Keefe), Jaison McGrath (Cameron McPherson), Lewis McLear (Nathan Flanagan HT), Kyle McAllister
SUBS NOT USED: Reece Wilson, Andrew McDonald, Ross Cameron.
SCORERS: Beattie (16), Morgan (27), Cuddihy (43, 64)
REFEREE:
WEATHER: Cold, wet 4C
ATTENDANCE
NEXT MATCH: SPFL Development League (away) v Motherwell Tuesday 19th January 2016 TBC
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