Amateurs See Off Danderhall

LEAFA Premier League 2

Bathgate came into the 5th League game of the Season on the back of a disappointing performance and result the previous week against East Calder and determined to improve on what was a disappointing end to a 3 match winning spell. Bathgate made a few changes to the starting line-up with Stuart McKie and Kenny Park coming in for their 1st starts of the season.

Bathgate opened the game well and looked the more dangerous side in the early stages, forcing a couple of corners and pressing high up the pitch, this paid off when Bathgate took a deserved lead in the 14 minute, a long throw from Scott Nisbet by-passed the players at the front post, Kenny Park out jumping his marker to glance a header in the far post from 6 yards to give Bathgate a 1-0 lead.

Danderhall never really created much in the opening 20-30 minutes, one shot was slashed wide and Gordon Clark gathering a number of long through balls in his box. It was Bathgate that stretched their lead in the 26 minute, Nisbet being set free on the left by Stuart Jackson, Nisbet then sent a cross into the penalty area, Kenny Park was there again to out jump the GK to flick the ball into the empty net to give Bathgate a 2-0 lead.

It was 3-0 shortly afterwards with an early contender for Goal of the Season, Glen McMahon took the ball out of defence and played a fantastic 30-40 yard pass over the last defender to Kenny Park who still had a lot to do just inside the penalty area where he controlled the ball on his right foot and volleyed with his left foot into the bottom left hand corner from 18 yards giving the GK no chance.

Bathgate at this point were in the ascendency and could have added to their tally before half time, Coulter shooting over after a good break from a Danderhall corner, and then Kenny Park sliding the ball across goal for Mark Neil who looked to have a tap in only to miss judge the bounce of the ball and fail to make contact with the goal at his mercy.

The second half began at a slower pace for Bathgate who seemed to be content to sit back and let Danderhall probe for a way back into the match. The early part of the half seen Danderhall dominate possession and territory but the Bathgate defence was holding firm and Clark in goals was having a fairly quiet day in terms of shots to deal with, the few that did come his way seemed to fly over or wide.

A couple of changes were made to try and get Bathgate moving forward but Danderhall were throwing caution to the wind and with 20 minutes remaining they found their first goal of the afternoon when some loose play by Bathgate on the left when they had 2 or 3 chances to clear the ball allowed the right midfielder possession in the box, he picked his cross out well and ball was slid home from 6 yards.

Following the goal Bathgate began to play a little more in the Daanderhall half and Euan McCraw advancing into the box on a couple of occasions but couldn’t quite find the final pass. If the goal served as a warning it wasn’t heeded when an almost identical mistake again allowed the right midfielder into the box, only for his cross to headed wide. The remaining minutes were played out without too much drama in the Bathgate penalty box, Clark holding onto one shot and a free kick being cleared by McMahon meanin Bathgate got back to winning ways with a 3-1 victory and their 4 in 5 league matches this season.