match270903

Crossgates got off to a flier and had Kirkcaldy pretty well pinned in their half the whole of the first period.

18 min: Gary Osborne broke down the left wing and skinned two players before one of them brought him down in the box. He took the penalty himself but sent it high and wide right.

24 min: Mike Brown took a snap shot from 20 yards that was heading for the top right hand corner but Ness pulled off a terrific save to deny him.

24 min: Scott Ross spun on the edge of the box and his right foot strike dipped over the defence and came crashing out again off of the bar.

28min: Grant Laing denied by another fine save from Ness

37 min: A Scott Ross cross from the right was controlled by Laing on his chest, he then spun and hooked the ball into the net.

40 min: Gary Osborne had a header cleared off the line for a corner, this was taken by Ross and Andy "Chelsea" Spence was left unmarked on the middle of the 6 yard box and had the easiest of headers to make it 2-0 for the Primrose.

Half time Kirkcaldy 0 Crossgates 2

Responding to the managers calls to dig deep Crossgates came out again all guns blazing and within 5 minutes of the restart were 3 up after Laing picked the ball up 30 yards out closed in on the box and rifled a tremendous 20 yard shot low and hard into the right hand corner of the goal.

Primrose defender Colin Stone picked up two goals in the half, however the first four minutes from Laings goal was ruled off as the ref said that the ball had been taken out by Ross before he squared it and the second 21 minutes into the half was an own goal when an attempted clearance header went over Shepherd and into the net.

Kirkcaldy had a few chances but it was Crossgates that always looked more likely to score as the pace of Ross, Osborne, and Deans was causing real problems for the Kirkcaldy defence.

Final score Kirkcaldy 1 Crossgates 3

p.s. Even with all the rain we've had over the last few days the pitch was absolutely superb. Probably the best playing surface we've seen all year.

Primrose:
Shepherd, Spence, Mullen, Stone, Patrick, R. Brown, Osborne, Laing, Deans, M. Brown, Ross
Subs: Coull

Kirkcaldy:
Ness, Mill, Ramsay, MacDonald, Gilbert, Arthur, Elder, Douglas, Stoddart, Anderson, Gilfillan
Subs: Hepburn, Smart, Sellar, Morgan, Russell

Ref: Ricky Smith. Not to bad a game, always tries to keep some humour in the game.

Man of the match: Good team effort, wouldn't be fair to single out any particular player.