Match Report

Match : 1st XI v Larne
Date : 2007-12-28
Venue : A
Score : 2-2
Scorers : Alan Burgess, Mark McKenna

By Kriss Leslie

We headed into the game looking for a win or a draw at the least to ensure that Larne remained below us in the league. It was to be no easy task however, as Larne had a stronger than normal team out and playing on the Mossley pitch never is easy against a team who trains on it every week. But we were still confident of getting a win as we too had a strong team for this important game in our season.

The game started with East and Larne exchanging attacks, but after the first ten minutes East fell asleep and Larne were on top for the rest of the first half. We didn’t do ourselves any favours with our hit-outs, which is something which has been troubling us for quite some time now. Larne went in front after a short corner, and East looked poor for the rest of the first half. Our poor 1st half performance was mainly due to our poor hit-outs as already mentioned. Not only was there not enough movement, those taking the hit-outs took too long to get the ball, and then pondered too much when eventually over the ball. Such inability to make quick decisions allowed Larne to set up in front of us, and then mount attacks on our defence, who as a result were on the back foot.

At half-time we realised that we needed to wake up if we wanted to get something out of the game. Thankfully, we all did just that and we put Larne under pressure right from the start, with Larne launching the odd counter-attack. However, we weren’t clinical enough with the chances we had. Mark McKenna had a good deflected effort, and we had a number of short-corners which we didn’t convert. We were soon to be punished for these missed opportunities, when Larne scored during a counter-attack.

2-0 down with ten minutes left, and things didnt look good for East even though we had been the better team in the second half. But we continued to fight on in a spirit which we should always play in. Eventually we pulled a goal back from a well taken short-corner converted by Bertie. 2-1 and we were back in the game. Only a few minutes later, and Mark McKenna had equalised from a short corner when he finished well at the back post.

Larne thought they had the game won at 2-0, but we got what we deserved after a much improved performance in the second half, in which we could’ve and probably should’ve won the game after equalising. Overall, a draw was still a good result against a strong Larne team looking for revenge after we defeated them at Paisley at the start of the season. That result means that we still stay three points clear of Larne who remain bottom. We finished bottom last year and one of our main goals for this season is to ensure that we move up the table and not to finish bottom again. Hopefully that result will go a long way in helping us steer clear of the bottom of the league.

Daril Hutton
Thom Russell
Stevie Cummins
Graeme Reid
Scott Higginson
Mark McKenna
Leon Currie
Kriss Leslie
Alan Russell
Alan Burgess
Michael McKenna
Ronnie McDowell
Johnny Orr
Michael Wilson

Mark McKenna