MID-ANNANDALE 3 NEWTON STEWART 0

John McNaught reporting from King Edward Park, Lockerbie

 After a six week lay-off over the festive period and the enforced break through frozen pitches play resumed in the South of Scotland last Saturday which saw Newton Stewart travel to Lockerbie to play Mid-Annandale in a League match. Three points for the visitors could have seen them jump up the league table a couple of places but it was not to be and in fact the Creesiders lost a place with Creetown leap-frogging them.  It was expected that this match would be close with both sides sitting near the bottom of the league but this was not the case with Mids winning quite comfortably in the end by three goals to nil.

It could have all been much more different though as it looked as though Newton had got off to a roaring start with the ball in the home sides net in the first attack of the match.  Referee Raymond Buchan though adjudged that skipper Johnny Fisher had put the ball into the net from an offside position following some good wing work from Stewart Taylor with only a minute on the clock.  This seemed to have an adverse effect on the visitors and the home side began to pressurise the Newton defence.  Ally Sloan had a good effort on goal saved by keeper Harry Fidler in the ninth minute but three minutes later Mids did open the scoring when Newton failed to clear a free kick swung over from the left.  The ball bounced around the Newton goalmouth but eventually it fell kindly for central defender Robbie Dodd who made no mistake from close in. 

Things became worse for Newton Stewart four minutes later when again the Newton defence failed to deal with a set piece. A corner from the right found Ally Sloan unmarked and seeing keeper Fidler off his line he lobbed into ten net from twelve yards out.  The visitors were producing a below par performance on a poor playing surface with Mids midfielder Jamie Robison pulling all the strings which saw the home side very much in command and dominating the game. Newton huffed and puffed their way to the break without troubling Mids keeper Innis Tait very much although the Newton defence had very little to deal with either as the home side seemed to be content with their two goal advantage.

The game though was over as a contest in the first minute of the second half when Mids attacked down the right wing straight from the kick-off.  As the ball was swung over from the wing to the far post striker Chris Norval rose unchallenged to head into the net for the home sides third goal which again was poorly defended by the Newton defence. 

The nearest Newton Stewart came to getting back into the match was in the sixty seventh minute when Fisher tested the home keeper with a fierce shot which he parried past the upright with the resultant corner kick  coming to nothing.  With fifteen minutes left things could have been worse for Newton when a slack back pass on the soggy surface was pounced on by Norval who found substitute Stephen Anderson with an open goal to aim at six yards out only to see his effort come back off the cross bar from where it was cleared by a relieved keeper Fidler. 

That was about as exciting as it got with the rest of the game being played out mainly in the mid-field area with very few clear cut goal chances being made by either side.  Mid-Annandale are a much stronger team as they were at the beginning of the season and thoroughly deserved their victory but this was a very poor performance by Newton Stewart who just did not seem to get going on the day and will have to improve vastly if they are to escape from the bottom part of the league table.

Mid-Annandale; Tait, Morton, Martin, Bell, Dodd,Robison, Henderson, Sloan, Notman, Norval, Smith, Subs; Murray, Jardine and McAdam

Newton Stewart;  Fidler, Walsh, Henry, Richardson, Wilson, Fisher, McKie, Stewart Taylor, McEwan, Agnew, Sean Taylor,  Subs. Lamont, Davies, Fyff and McClymont

Referee – Raymond Buchan, Dumfries