Aiden Gibb (18, 6ft) came to us after being released by Celtic and has slotted in to our newish true-wing-back 3-5-2 shape on the right. He has impressed with his ability to intercept plus has been OK with his Crossing for someone with 3 for Crosses. He is quick (Acc 14 Pac 13) so is now training the ‘Knock Ball Past Opponents’ Trait. Also his Jumping Reach has just gone up 1.8 in a month (10.2 to 12)!!!!
So today – East Kilbride – a small but strong squad who are also under-performing some what this season.
Glasgow starts in place of Hainey, Mackay in place of Cairney as the AP No. 10 and Balfour (Who has been training really well) in place of Churchill but as a Carillero as he hasn’t done much as a CM and as a Mezzala he and Gibb get in each others way a bit. Our Wingbacks start on Defend but this may go back to Support/Attack if needs be. The rest of the team is unchanged. Not feeling too confident about this one for some reason. EK go 4-2-3-1. Guess what – pouring down again.
HT Civil Service 1 (Lumsden 4) East Kilbride 0
Just 4 minutes in and, after a Lumsden cross to Glasgow went a bit long, Glasgow passed to Coll, who yet again picked out Lumsden who finished with aplomb. East Kilbride came into the game after the goal a bit but Lumsden was creating havoc every time the ball went in the box in the air. However the half ended 1-0 – very very tight with only 3 shots in total.
FT Civil Service 2 (Lumsden 4, Hainey 90+2) East Kilbride 2 (Miller 84, Malcolm 90+3) Att 112 (21 Away)
East Kilbride started the half very strongly, probing & prodding. I drew our wingbacks back to be supporting wing-backs in the full-back position, and it seemed to shore up our position. Hainey came on for Glasgow, Cairney for Mackay. Unfortunately in the 84th minute a East Kilbride Corner found Miller, who headed home pretty-much unmarked. To this point I’d been slowly walking the team back, but obviously we went straight Attacking, Wingbacks back up. And in the 92nd minute a mistake by Davey in the East Kilbride defence let in Hainey, who scored to make it 2-1 to the Strollers. That wasn’t the end of it though – From the kick-off East Kilbride threw everybody forward, and a cross found Malcolm unmarked bring it back to 2-2. And thats how it finished – absolutely fuming!!!!
Still only 2 points off top – it looks like everybody is continuing to take points off of everyone else. We now have a break from the league, the next 2 games being the South Challenge Cup 3rd Round and Scottish Cup 2nd Round, before we play top-of-the-table Gala Fairydean on 26th October. The South Challenge Cup is Away to Dalkeith Thistle (Who have no ‘real’ players) in 4 days – see you then.