Ardrossan Winton Rovers 7 Ardeer Thistle 2

Another heavy defeat for Ardeer with most of the damage being inflicted in a quarter hour period in the first half. The game was quite even up to the half hour, although the home team did have a goal disallowed for offside on 14 minutes. Unfortunately, Ardeer completely capitulated in the last fifteen minutes before half-time. Winton Rovers opened the scoring on the counter from an Ardeer attack in the 32nd minute when a long pass was received in the left hand side of the box and was finished by one of their strikers low across the goal and into the net. Just a minute later it was 2-0 when they scored on the rebound with a header after their initial effort had been saved. Ardeer did briefly threaten immediately afterwards, with the ball being cleared off the line after a goalmouth scramble before Lee Munro and Darren Quinn forced a fine double save from the Ardrossan goalkeeper. However, Ardeer's defending was becoming catastrophically bad and they conceded three more goals in rapid succession. The first of these was a spectacular overhead kick on 38 minutes but the 4th and 5th goals on 40 and 44 minutes respectively were both from short range and it was all too easy for the home side.

Things were made even worse at half time when I discovered the pie hut had ran out of pies and with no other hot food being available I was not at all looking forward to what would no doubt be a grim second half for Ardeer. When the home side scored a sixth goal with a sublime 25-yard free kick only a minute into the half it appeared as if my fears were well placed. However, Ardeer were to prove me wrong by playing very well in the second half and they were the better team for the rest of the game. They got a goal back on 65 minutes when the impressive Tommy Maitland won possession on the left hand side of the park and ran with the ball before passing to Lee Munro at the edge of the box. Lee wasnt able to beat his man but the ball ended up at the feet of Maitland who scored from inside the box. Tommy ran the show in the second half and it was a fully deserved goal for him, his first for the club.

Ardrossan hadnt given up in scoring again themselves and almost scored another shortly afterwards. A fortunate bounce gave them a one-on-one chance against Joe Murphy but he saved well. Ardeer got their second goal in the 72nd minute when Darren Quinn got on the end of a great Tom Donovan cross and finished well from the edge of the six-yard box. For some reason he'd been heckled throughout the half by a small section of fans in the home end but he now has two goals in two games for the club this season. Lee Munro would have made it 6-3 later on with a lob from outside the box but the referee deemed him to be offside before he could get his shot away and with the away side tiring, Winton Rovers scored their seventh goal in the last minute to wrap up the game.