Oban Saints 2
Campsie Minerva 1
SPAFA Premier Division
Report and photographs: Derek Black.
Oban Saints’ Scottish Premier AFA Premiership clash with Campsie Minerva was one of only a handful of amateur football fixtures to survive last Saturday’s wintery weather.
The frozen grass surface at Glencruitten was ruled out, however, the 3G at Oban High
School was deemed playable giving the home crowd their last glimpse of action before the Christmas and New Year break.
Superb finishes from James Muir and David Beaton gave Saints the lead at the interval, however, Campsie showed the wisdom of Roman goddess Minerva to keep Saints under second-half pressure. But Saints showed fantastic strength to keep the visitors at bay until Kieran Brown’s 96th minute strike made it an extremely anxious end to the nine minutes added by referee Graeme Murphy.
Saints manager Ross Maitland made just one change to the starting line-up which had secured West of Scotland progress at the expense of AFC Chryston two weeks earlier with Rory Dowd coming in to replace the unavailable Aaron Moore.
Saints lined up with Craig Maitland in goal behind a back four of Fredrick Marthinsen, Steven MacLeod, Drew Murray and captain Scott Maitland. Gavin Forgrieve, Paul McFatridge and David Beaton were in midfield, with James Muir, Connor Moore and Rory Dowd up front. On the substitutes bench were Oran Bryce, James Conington, James Ford, Craig Livingstone, Keiron Lopez and goalkeeper Graham Douglas.
A cagey start saw little goalmouth action until Rory Dowd’s 12th minute shot from the left edge of the Campsie box was deflected behind for a corner-kick. Gavin Forgrieve’s delivery from the right was cleared with the visitors breaking to the other end where Drew Murray blocked a Ciaran Hogg effort behind for Campsie’s first corner-kick.
Connor Hogg’s delivery to the back post was met by the head of recent signing Kyle Lochhead, the former Partick Thistle centre half, but he couldn’t direct his header on target.
Former Harestanes and Colville Park striker Paul Mclaughlin was keeping Saints central defensive pairing Steven MacLeod and Drew Murray on their toes and when the Scottish Amateur Cup winner got in behind the Saints back line in the 15th minute there was relief all round when his usually deadly finishing prowess deserted him and his weak shot bounced into the arms of Saints keeper Craig Maitland.
Goals in each of his last two outings has seen James Muir grow in confidence and the 16-year-old’s jinking run along the goal-line after good work in the middle of the park by Gavin Forgrieve took out defenders Jonathon Mcwilliams and Patrick Griffin before Scottish Amateur international goalkeeper David Tait dived to smother the ball
at Muir’s feet.
Tait denied Muir again in the 25th minute holding well low to his right after Rory Dowd’s measured pass into the box had teed up Muir for a strike from 15 yards.
Although not the first Norwegian to have played for Saints – that honour was taken in the 1960s by outside left Paul Laurens – Fredrik Marthinsen has settled in well on the right of the back four and his timely intervention on the 18-yard line prevented David Veitch from threading through for the lurking Paul McLaughlin.
With both defences looking solid, a moment of brilliance was required to break the deadlock and that came in the 33rd minute from the right boot of James Muir. There seemed little threat to the Campsie goal from Muir’s position on the left edge of the 18-yard box, however, the youngster’s curling effort dipped into the postage stamp
corner giving Minerva keeper David Tait no chance.
Saints added a second goal just before the interval, with James Muir the architect. Muir’s smart turn on the left of the Campsie box created the space for him to pick out the unmarked Paul McFatridge on the 18-yard line. The big central midfielder resisted the temptation to shoot, instead rolling the ball into the path of the better placed David Beaton who found the bottom corner.
The visitors began the second half in determined fashion, but it was Saints who provided the first real threat when Connor Moore closed-down Jack Curtis just inside the Campsie half and raced into the box. Currently joint top goalscorer with James Ford, Moore failed to add to his tally, dragging his right foot shot well wide of target.
With 16 minutes remaining, Ross Maitland replaced Paul McFatridge and Rory Dowd with James Conington and fit again James Ford.
Campsie had Saints pinned back for long periods of the second half and the Oban side were restricted to counter-attacks but should really have put the game to bed in the 83rd minute when James Conington sent James Muir away on the right, with Connor Moore racing through the middle in support. Muir squared for Moore, who was denied at point blank range by an excellent save from David Tait.
Two minutes later Saints had a further chance to make the points safe when Gavin Forgrieve picked out James Muir’s run through the inside right channel, however, the young striker’s shot across David Tait slipped agonisingly wide of the far post.
Saints’ final change came when Craig Livingstone and Keiron Lopez replaced Fredrik Marthinsen and Connor Moore.
In the sixth minute of added time, Kieran Brown eventually found a way past Craig Maitland, firing home from 22 yards for a thoroughly deserved Campsie goal.
With the home crowd beginning to wonder if referee Graeme Murphy, who handled proceedings well, was timing the match with an advent calendar rather than a stopwatch, Mr Murphy finally blew for full time after nine added minutes sending the relieved home crowd home cold but happy.
Saints have no official fixture this Saturday but are hoping to organise a bounce game for the squad before their final outing of 2023 on Saturday December 16 to face UB United of the Strathclyde Saturday Morning AFA Premier Division for a place in the
last 16 of the West of Scotland Amateur Cup.
Referee Gary Kirkwood takes charge of the fourth round tie which must be decided on the day with penalty kicks to decide the winner if the sides cannot be separated after 90 minutes.