match270903

The Primrose turned out today for their first home game in six matches and the final game of their Fife League Division 1 campaign. The match was against Lochore Welfare, who fittingly were also the their first opponents in competition this season.

The previous three games against Lochore this season had been two wins in the Fife League Cup for the visitors (3-1 at Lochore and 2-1 at the Humbug), the third game being 2-2 in the League when the Primrose scraped a draw at Central Park after Lochore went down to 9 men when they were leading 2-0.

The Primrose were out to build on the victories of the last two weeks against Camelon and Lochgelly Albert whilst Lochore were playing their second game under new manager Pat McAuley.

The match started well and both sides took a while to find their way. In twenty five minutes Neil McLeod followed in a shot and injured himself in a clash with the Lochore keeper Crowe. This necessitated in him having to be substituted by Matt Sykes with only 25 minutes played.

A few minutes later the Primrose were awarded two corners in close succession, Lochore failed to clear the second one and after some silky footwork by Bristow, Sykes put in a good shot that just went past the post. Bristow also came close on a couple occasions with one going past and Crowe saving the other well.

40 minutes into the game and the Primrose failed to clear an attack and Alan Moody tried to steer the spilled ball into the net from 20 yards out but his effort went just over. After this it looked like it was heading for a goalless first half until almost on the stroke of half time when Gary Sutherland managed to shake off his defender and hit a thundering shot in from the edge of the box that Smith was unable to stop.

The second half was a scrappy affair that could have been better if the referee had decided to take control. The best chance the Primrose had was when Stuart Foster broke down the right and got a good cross over that Matt Sykes got to but his shot on the turn again scraped past the outside of the post. The best chance of the half for Lochore, again fell to Sutherland, but this time his well struck effort was well saved by Smith.

Primrose:
Smith, Patrick, Hobbs, Millar, Lakie, McLeod, Laing, Ash, Westgarth, Bristow, Foster
Subs: Sykes, Deans, Osborne, Trialist, Rushford

Lochore Welfare:
Crowe, Bishop, Kinnell, Duncan, Burke, Moody, Shankland, Hodge, Sutherland, Wilson, Currie
Subs: Jaffa, Grieve, Shields, Dudgeon

Ref: Mr Mark McHendry ** Didn't keep up with play and made some very strange decisions.

Man of the match: Ross Millar. Tried hard to get us forward and was solid in the air.