DESPITE a wonderful late rally to keep alive their hopes in this season's Scottish Schools' FA Shield, Firrhill High School under-16s bowed out of the national event when they lost 4-3 to Armadale Academy on the old Astroturf pitch at Whitburn Academy.
These two schools met in the quarter-finals of the under-15 age group last season, and Firrhill won on penalties, so the 4-3 final scoreline in favour of the West Lothian school this time was sweet revenge, but it could not have been any closer at th
e final whistle from excellent young match referee, Mark Kohler.
A confident-looking Firrhill High School had the better of the opening stages of the game and they went 1-0 up with a good goal from the impressive Tiree Wilson, who showed great composure when running in on the home goal on this slippy surface to play the ball wide of Armadale keeper Andy Murphy.
After losing that early goal, Armadale went on to control the midfield and they played the better short passing game that was required on this hockey pitch.
Greig Innes was good in the heart of the visiting defence and the Firrhill No.5 won the ball in a strong tackle and broke out of his own goal but his final pass was mopped up by the Armadale defence.
Armadale continued to mount good offensive moves while Firrhill were confined to attacking on the break. Dylan Robertson was a star for Armadale and he set up Sean Sneddon with a tremendous defence-splitting pass from right to left, but the Armadale player shot wide of the Firrhill goal from a good position.
Lewis McAndrew was then back on the Firrhill goal-line to hammer away a shot and Tyrone Jiminez went on a run at the other end, setting Wilson free for a run at the home goal, only to fire wide of the target.
When Armadale poured forward in search of an equaliser, it took another superbly-timed tackle from Innes to clear the danger. Armadale's offside tactics caught out Firrhill time after time, while Dylan Robertson got closer and closer to scoring with good shots at the visiting goal.
After great attacking moves at both ends, it was Armadale who got the goal they deserved when Ryan Meechan got to the bye-line on the left of the Firrhill goal before he cut the ball back for Fraser Spence to fire a good shot past Firrhill keeper, Steven Irving, to make it 1-1.
With Firrhill still trying to regain their confidence after losing that goal they conceded another, poor defensive play being punished when Dylan Robertson hammered a shot high into the Firrhill net from close in after a cross from Meechan was not cleared properly.
That was a bad goal for the Edinburgh school side to lose and they took a long time to recover from that set-back. It was still 2-1 at the break for Armadale and they went on to enjoy a very good spell of the game on the restart.
The West Lothian school went 3-1 up when Fraser Robertson headed Stuart Boyle's cross from the right past Irving, another goal that exposed Firrhill's poor defending.
But worse was to come for the visiting side when Irving lost the ball as Meechan chased what looked to be a hopeless cause. To the Armadale player's surprise, the ball fell loose and he had the simple task of knocking it into the empty net to give the home outfit a three-goal cushion.
It was that goal, however, which spurred Firrhill back into action and they started to string together good passing moves to show how good a team they really are.
Jack Blaikie showed up well when attacking down the left and he sent over a good cross towards the waiting Jiminez, but Murphy was quick off his line to clutch the cross. The game had turned into a real cup-tie with the tension getting to the players on both sides.
It got even worse for Armadale when Blaikie took a good forward pass from Chris Marshall to set up Wilson to score a second goal for Firrhill to cut the margin to 4-2.
There was a new sense of urgency among the visiting players and Blaikie sent another excellent cross from the left, only for Callum Irvine to head wide. Blaikie again broke free on the left to send in a perfect ball for Mark Stables to ram the ball past Murphy to make it 4-3 and the game went into overdrive as the weather got colder and colder.
Wilson then saw a great effort at the Armadale goal beat the keeper but crash back into play off the left-hand post. Then Murphy dropped a cross from Blaikie and in the resultant melee in the home goal a shot was charged down before the ball was hacked away.
At the other end, the dangerous Dylan Robertson broke away and won a corner on the left for Armadale and the same player sent a powerful drive wide of a post.
The final whistle brought the game to a close with Armadale the winners in a seven-goal thriller of a Scottish Shield tie. Whatever anyone's thoughts about the quality of the playing surface, it was the same for both teams and, on the day, Armadale were deserved winners on the balance of play.
But nothing should be taken away from the Firrhill fight back that almost produced an equaliser that would have taken the tie in a penalty decider.
When Wilson's great effort smashed back into play off a post, that was the defining moment in this tie. It was not going to be Firrhill's day this time round and it was Armadale who were celebrating at the close of play.
All things considered, it was a great tie and all credit to both sets of players for making it such a thrilling game of football. It was sad, however, to see a game at this level having to take place on a hockey pitch.
An Armadale parent said: "It certainly was not ideal. None of the players could tackle properly on that surface and the ball simply zipped away at times. It was a great game, but I thought Armadale just shaded it this time."
Armadale Academy: Andrew Murphy, Greg Marshall, Craig Shelton, Ryan Meechan, Sean Sneddon, Nathan Robertson, Dylan Robertson, Fraser Spence, Stuart Burke, Calum Irvine, Arron Beck, Duncan Murphy, Chris Purvis, Graham Robertson.
Firrhill High School: Steven Irving, Adam Hunter, Fraser Stalker, Craig McMillan, Greig Innes, Lewis McAndrew, Paul Ewing, Mark Stables, Tiree Wilson, Jack Blaikie, Tyrone Jiminez, Chris Marshall, Callum Irvine, Alex Harkness.
Referee: Mark Kohler.
