Milngavie Wanderers

Milngavie Wanderers FC 4 – 1 Newton Mearns Rovers AFC

H/T: 2-0

Scorers: Tum, McKellar, Rodgers & Maxwell

MOM: Chris Sweeny

The Wanderers secured promotion by taking all 3 points in the re-arranged fixture against NMR AFC who themselves are going for the 3rd place promotion spot.   With the league officials in attendance both teams and club officials put behind them the previous ill tempered encounters and engaged in a thrilling game of football. 

For the first 20 minutes the game was evenly balanced with equal amounts of possession being had without either team carving out a goal scoring opportunity.  The Wanderers decided to take a chance and play “Berto” struggling with a groin injury and it was his powerful running down the left hand side that eventually turned the game in favour of the Wanderers on the half hour mark.  His wicked front post cross surprised the NMR keeper who fuddled the ball, dropping to Tum who half volleyed the ball into the net to make it 1-0 to the Wanderers. 

The second arrived 5 minutes later –  good work down the right seen the ball fall in the box to Mckellar who tucked the ball past the keeper to make it 2-0.  (What about the wee mans celebrations) A mention has to go to Meeky in goals for the Wanderers who pulled off a fantastic save with only a few minutes of the half left diving at the feet of the MNR oncoming midfield player to put the ball out for a corner when it looked liked NMR where going to claw a goal back.

The second half started with a number of positional changes by NMR as they looked to force themselves back into the game.  The Wanderers strategy from the onset was to stop the ball from reaching the impressive MNR forward line.  Player of the match Chris Sweeney operating initially in midfield and then in defence carried this out with expert precision.  He was everywhere on the park – not allowing the NMR players any time on the ball or time to get their heads up and pick a pass.

Needless to say the 3^rd goal came from a lung bursting run down the left from Sweeny whose expert cross into the box met the oncoming Mickey Rodgers who simply passed the ball into the goal past the helpless NMR keeper.  With the score 3-0 credit to NMR as Nani their player of the year scored to make the score a little more respectable at 3-1. The final goal was the best of the lot with only 2 minutes left – Maxwell doing what he has done so many times this season sent an unstoppable shot into the top right hand corner of the net from 30 yards out to seal the points and the victory for the Wanderers.

The Wanderers with 2 games to go will be hoping that NMR can take points off Dalziel and likewise NMR will be hoping that the Wanderers can take the points off Drumchapel FP.  Good luck for the rest of the season.

What a difference the amateur game of football would be in having both referees and referees assistants (linesmen) at games.  It is something for the Caledonian League to consider for the future for sure – once again the Caledonian League could be at the heart of raising the level of professionalism that was achieved on the onset when the Caledonian League was established by Douglas Smith all these years back.