Haddington Athletic added 8 new photos.

3 hours ago

2018/19 matchday # 19

Saturday 10 November 2018 2.30pm

Conference B - at Meggetland Stadium, Edinburgh

Tynecastle 1 (0)
(Shane Costelloe 86)

Haddington Athletic 9 (4)
(Andy Jones 7, 27, Grant Rose 35, 45, 64, 66, Hamish Law 69, 79, Jordan Cropley 73)

Our ninth Conference B fixture saw us at Meggetland Stadium, the home Tynecastle now share with Boroughmuir RFC, and as smart a facility as can be found in the East Of Scotland League. The occasion was our first ever competitive encounter with our hosts, who sat just above us in the table, two points better off having played a game more – on the face of things then it seemed reasonable to expect a close contest. Dale Cornet, newly signed from Musselburgh Athletic, took his place in goal – one other change to the eleven who’d started at Burntisland saw Gavin Brown replace absentee Andy McNeill. On the bench for Tynecastle was Mark Torrance, out of the Millfield picture this season and whose transfer to his new team had been concluded only hours earlier.

Play got under way after a minute’s silence marking the centenary of Armistice Day, and we enjoyed a bright enough start with some crisp passing and a generally positive attitude. It was Tynecastle though who saw the first scoring chance falling their way – trialist left back Gordon Harris, recently freed by Bathgate Thistle, did well getting down the wing before putting in an inviting cross which Burgess headed wide of the back post. Within two minutes we’d taken the lead, following a free kick awarded when Grant Rose was fouled on the right touchline – it was taken quickly, allowing top scorer Andy Jones to try successfully for goal from distance; home ‘keeper Moffat wouldn’t have been too happy to have conceded low at his near post. Our goalscorer did well just a minute later to ride a couple of defensive challenges on his way into the home penalty area before laying the ball off to Brown, whose shot found the side-netting when he looked to have better options available. Our new goalkeeper’s first save came on sixteen minutes, when he pushed Costelloe’s shot from twenty yards over the bar – the way the game was to develop he wasn’t to have a particularly busy afternoon. Another positive move involving Jordan Cropley, Grant Rose and Chris Cairney ended with the latter delivering an inviting low ball across the face of goal, but there were no takers. On twenty one minutes Cropley was dispossessed in a dangerous area not far outside our own box, but Burgess dragged his shot wide of Cornet’s right hand post. This preceded a flurry of Tynecastle bookings which didn’t endear the whistler to the home players – first in the book was centre half Leslie for catching Ross King on the right, not far into the opposition half, and two minutes later right back McIntosh had his name taken for over-vociferous criticism of the referee. Dan Greig was the third home player booked inside four minutes, for a foul on Ali Simpson, and the Tynecastle mood only worsened when they found themselves two goals behind on twenty seven minutes – a move down the right broke down but a home defender in attempting to clear passed the ball straight to the feet of Rose, who prodded it forward for Jones, setting him up to work his way past a couple of defenders before finding himself just inside the penalty area from where he picked his spot for a precise finish. Tynecastle responded with a Greig free kick just wide of the post, though Cornet had it covered. With thirty three minutes played, Ross King became the first Haddington booking after he’d fouled an opponent who’d newly halted his run down the right before dispossessing him. Two minutes on it was 3-0 in our favour – Jones delivered a corner to the near post from the right and Rose tucked it away. With a couple of minutes of the first half remaining, Rose was denied a second goal by a good save from Moffat after shooting from eight yards, King and Jones having made good progress down the left. Play quickly switched to the other end, and we were fortunate not to concede a freak own goal when Cairney’s wild passback just passed the post with Cornet way off his line. As it was, a pleasing first half concluded with a fourth goal gifted our way, Rose capitalising on a needless mistake by MacDonald to give us a comfortable 4-0 cushion going into the second half.

Half-time – Tynecastle 0 Haddington Athletic 4

Our opponents were a shade unfortunate not to pull a goal back in the third minute of the second half, when Euan Greig’s curling effort from the left came back off the face of the crossbar with Cornet beaten. Three minutes later a good Haddington move down the right ended with Jones playing the ball in to the feet of Rose, who found his way through a tight space between two home defenders but couldn’t get a proper connection on his shot, allowing Moffat to gather easily. On fifty three minutes, Tynecastle debutant Torrance replaced Brkic in the home midfield, but it was to be no happy start for our former player. We made our first substitution eight minutes later, Hamish Law replacing the productive Jones, and within a very short time we found ourselves 5-0 up; Cornet’s long ball found Law on the left, and moments later the ball landed in front of Rose the best part of thirty yards from the Tynecastle goal – seeing Moffat well off his line the striker opted to try a lob over the ‘keeper, a trick he executed perfectly to complete his hat-trick. The teenage striker then claimed his fourth and our sixth just two minutes later, with a simple near post finish teed up by Law’s ball in from the right. 6-0 up now, and with the points clearly in the bag, we made a double substitution which saw Declan Quinn and Darren Leslie introduced in place of King and four-goal Rose. They’d been on the park not quite three minutes when we hit our seventh goal – Quinn played the ball in from the left and fellow substitute Law scored his first Haddington goal from close range, getting to it a fraction of a second before the ‘keeper and blasting home. Tynecastle heads were down now, and our final total of five second half goals were all scored within a seventeen minute spell – next in on the act was Jordan Cropley, who coolly tried his luck from twenty yards and saw his shot find the net to Moffat’s right; 8-0 now, with seventeen minutes remaining. On seventy nine minutes we extended our lead to nine goals, Law notching his second of the afternoon – this time he slid the ball past Moffat from the left of the penalty area after Brown’s aerial ability saw him knock the ball down into his team-mate’s path. Given the sequence of events leading up to this it seemed reasonable to think we might cross the double-figures threshold, but as it transpired Law’s second was our final goal of the afternoon. Quinn came closest to our tenth goal with four minutes remaining after Shaun Hill set him up for a shot, but it went just wide of the post. Moments later a defensive slip allowed Costelloe a late consolation goal for Tynecastle, a disappointing development for all keen to see us record a third clean sheet of the season, but it would be more than harsh to be critical considering we’d scored nine goals. Costelloe could’ve had another before the end but our new ‘keeper did excellently to block his fiercely-struck low drive, before repeating the feat a couple of seconds later after the ball had fallen back into the path of the Tynecastle man.

In our previous eighteen competitive outings since switching from Junior football our biggest winning margin had been only two goals, so the result at Meggetland creates a record of sorts. The mood afterwards was in stark contrast to that at Burntisland seven days earlier – on this occasion everyone who took the field in Hi Hi’s colours contributed in positive fashion to a great team effort.

Tynecastle: Ian Moffat, Ewen McIntosh, Gordon Harris, Dan Greig, Mark Leslie, Shane Costelloe, Antonio Brkic, Andy MacDonald, Malcolm Burgess, Jordan Smith, Euan Greig. Subs: Craig Sutherland, Bobby Balloch, Jack Ramsay, Niall Kelly, Mark Torrance, Robert Watt (SG).



Haddington: Dale Cornet, Ali Simpson, Chris Cairney, Joe Hamill, George Cunningham, Ross King, (Darren Leslie S66), Gavin Brown, Shaun Hill, Grant Rose, (Declan Quinn S66), Jordan Cropley, Andy Jones, (Hamish Law S61).



Referee: Keith Maskell ... See MoreSee Less

Photo