Star Shine Brighter as Dalbeattie Edge Semi Final Thriller

Posted on Saturday, April 19th, 2014

Spartans crashed out of the South Challenge Cup following a 3-2 semi final defeat at home to Dalbeattie Star.

Dalbeattie opened the scoring after just 6 minutes. John Grant’s short pass was intercepted by Hugh Cameron allowing the visitors to race forward and after a neat ball was played to Strike Wayne Gordon, he fired a shot into the top corner from the edge of the box.

Gordon had a chance to double the lead following a poor pass from Danny O’Donnell, however the veteran defender would have had a huge sigh of relief as the striker’s attempt rattled off the bar and cleared to safety.

Willie Bremner had a couple of chance as he first get onto a great pass from Whatley however his strike was well saved by Darren Martin in the Dalbeattie goal, before moments later he headed a Sean Muhsin cross just wide.

After 16 minutes however we got a deserved equaliser following a superb team goal. Whatley played a superb pass, allowing Gary Cennerazzo to race free on the right. His powerful cross was headed by Jack Beesley into the path of Bremner who placed the ball into the net with a clinical finish.

Both sides were playing neat flowing football and the Spartans defence had to be on their toes as the Dalbeattie strikers worked their way into the box on a number of occasions.

We started the 2nd half well and Willie Bremner had another chance early on as he raced onto a neat through ball from Whatley however his final shot was weak and easily held by Martin.

As we pushed forward, it meant there was a lot of space for Dalbeattie to hit us on the counter and that is exactly what they did to take the lead in the 68th minute as they raced down the left wing and Scott Milligan’s accurate finish found the bottom corner of the net.

Dalbeattie then added a third in the 80th minute with a fine strike from Lewis Sloan to rifled his shot into the net from the edge of the box.

We continued to push forward trying to get back into the game and deep into injury time Donal Henretty managed to head home a corner kick from just a yard out. As he tried to get the ball back out of the net he was tackled to the ground by one of the Dalbeattie defenders. Several players then got involved to break up the situation and after the dust had settled the referee produced a couple of yellow cards.

Dalbeattie held on for the win and will progress to face East Kilbride following their 5-4 AET win over Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale.

Malt & Hops Man of the Match: Willie Bremner – another great performance and another goal for Bremner who has been on superb form recently.

Team: Gilpin, Cennerazzo, Main, Sivewright, O’Donnell, Grant (Motion), Beesley, Whatley, Bremner, McLeod, Muhsin (Henretty) Unused: Blaikie, Anderson, Carswell