Before we make the 17 mile, 30 minute journey around the Edinburgh Bypass to play Dalkeith Thistle ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalkeith_Thistle_F.C. ), situated just SE of Edinburgh itself, our Reserves played a friendly v Arniston Reserves on Sunday, winning 2-1, Craig Newall back from injury with a goal and MotM, Hainey with the 2nd goal.
As this competition isn’t particularly important (And we have a Scottish Cup game in 3 days that is) I’ve rotated a large part of the squad.
We’re resting Lumsden, Balfour, McVitie, Coll, Gibb & Niang for the Scottish Cup game v Preston Athletic in 3 days, formation stays the same though some roles change. Dalkeith are in a 4-2-2-2(2DM) formation.
HT Dalkeith Thistle 0 Civil Service 4 (MacEwan 5, Cairney pen 26, 30, 32)
Attack straight away, and in the 5th minute a corner found its way to Rory MacEwan, who with his 2nd bite of the cherry put the ball in the bottom left of the Dalkeith goal. 1-0 Strollers. Constant pressure led to a penalty in the 26th minute, Hainey adjudged to have been held back, Cairney firing home a Kevin Pressman-esque strike. That obviously spurred him on, as in the 30th minute the ball came to Cairney again just inside the box and he lashed it home to make it 3-0. And he made it a 6 minute hat-trick in the 32nd minute with a 30 yard stunner in the top right hand corner – Where have you been all this time Paul?? Then for no reason Jamie Glasgow got himself sent off for a second yellow 2 minutes into stoppage time at the end of the half, but at 4-0 we should be OK 🙂
FT Dalkeith Thistle 0 Civil Service 5 (MacEwan 5, 51 Cairney pen 26, 30, 32) Att 62 (52 Away)
A quieter half, but being down to 10 didn’t seem to matter too much, with MacEwen getting his 2nd in the 51st minute, a nice strike from 15 yards. A few subs made (Andrew Mackay for Mair, Pooler for Cairney, Churchill for Clappers) and we closed the game out with no undue drama. 5-0, job done, into the next round.
And we’ve got a tough 4th Round draw – At home to Edusport/Caledonian Braves on 13th November. Next up is the Scottish Cup 2nd Round away at Pennypit Park versus Preston Athletic, who are at the same level as us (Highland League) – See you then.