Saturday 1st March 2014

Newburgh 2 Lochore Welfare 2

Newburgh returned to competitive action on Saturday with the visit of Lochore Welfare in the McBookie.com East Region North League.

This was Newburgh’s first game since their away win at East Craigie on the 1st of February.

Manager Graham Nicoll added right back Andy Davies, signed from Lochee United midweek, to his squad for the game.

The first chance of the game fell to the visitors on the 12th minute with Godwin screwing a shot wide after breaking free to find himself one on one with the Houston in the Burgh goal.

Lochore were producing the majority of the chances and could have been out of sight if their finishing had been better in the opening half hour. Their breakthrough came on the 32nd minute when a well delivered corner was met by a powerful Reid header that Houston could only parry into the path of Gibson who drove the ball into the back of the net.

Lochore looked to have shot themselves in the foot with minutes remaining to half time when Rodgers fouled Gray inside the penalty area. Finlay stepped up to take the spot kit only for Inglis to pull off a superb save maintaining the visitor’s advantage at the break.

The second half was only 2 minutes old when Newburgh restored parity. Elder and McAdam combined well on the left allowing McAdam to driver a cross over the box to be met by Ferguson at the back post. Ferguson side footed the ball coolly into the net.

Lochore were still reeling from this early loss when Tulleth pounced on a slack back pass from Vaughan left Inglis scrambling to get to the ball before the livewire Tulleth. The keeper’s clearance deflected off the Burgh striker allowing him time to pick up the ball and drive it into the empty net.

Lochore were rattled and could have been further behind with Elder and Harris having shots saved by Inglis.

The visitors hauled themselves back into the game on the 65th minute when striker Ferguson scored with a shot low through the defence beyond Houston.

Newburgh played their best football in the last ten minutes of the game when pushing for the winner. Gray, Spence and Finlay all had efforts cleared off the line that would have tied up the three points.

Manager Nicoll reflected after the final whistle “we were lucky to go in after the break only 1 goal down and I pointed this out to the players in the dressing room. We looked rusty and didn’t look like the team we were prior to this enforced break. I was pleased with how quickly we came out of the blocks in the second half but we must maintain this level of performance for larger periods of the game if we are to have any chance of improving our position in the table”.

Newburgh travel to Scone this Saturday to take on a resurgent Thistle side who have been steadily climbing the league.  

Newburgh: Houston, Davies, McAdam, Moon, Smith, R Gray, Finlay, Elder, Ferguson, Tulleth (Spence 78), Harris (Honeyman 68)

Subs: Christie