SETON Boys' Club swept seven goals past Preston Athletic on the lush green pastures of Tranent Juniors' Foresters Park to secure their second piece of silverware this season.
There was little evidence in the first half of the under-14 Ian Mackay Cup final (named in honour of the Evening News Local Heroes correspondent] that a tide of goals would follow a 35-minute goal drought, but a strike seconds before the interval by
Daniel O'Rourke, who went on to notch a further four, set Seton on course for a 7-1 victory.
The striker was as clinical in dispatching the ball past Athletic goalkeeper Kieran Beveridge as he was strong in his running and willing in his team play throughout the game. Such was his dominance of the scoresheet, it was at times difficult to see where the goals would have come from had O'Rourke not have graced the final with his skill and precision.
A healthy crowd of well over 100 attended the sun-kissed East Lothian ground for the Bank Holiday showpiece.
A quick-fire counter-attack after a Preston corner on 20 minutes saw O'Rourke presented with a chance, but he prodded the ball wide of both Beveridge and the goal with the outside of his right foot.
The right peg of the same player was back in action on the half-hour mark, sending the ball narrowly over the crossbar with a speculative effort from 25 yards.
Clearly keen on breaking the deadlock and hungry for goals, O'Rourke finally found the net on the stroke of half-time.
Scott McPherson fed Seton's No.8 with a ball inside from the left wing and, 20 yards out, O'Rourke skipped inside his marker before shooting past Beveridge with a low shot.
Preston pushed forward in search of an equaliser after the restart, their lanky forward Liam Brogan wrapping his left foot around the ball from 20 yards only to see his shot go just wide.
O'Rourke then trebled his tally as his patience and persistence paid off twice in quick succession. Firstly Calum McClure's measured pass forward from midfield ran into the path of the striker, who curled the ball round Beveridge and into the far right-hand corner. Within seconds, he found himself with the ball in a similar position in the inside left channel. This time, he chose to deliver a low drilled shot into the near corner to the right of the goalkeeper.
Preston's defence were simply unable to cope.
On 50 minutes, Seton forward Greg Lauder hit the post after Athletic's defence failed to clear the ball from the danger area and Beveridge bravely blocked McPherson's effort on the rebound.
Again, on 52 minutes, the goalkeeper was to thank for an admirable stop. O'Rourke's inch-perfect pass to McClure led to the big striker thumping an effort at goal, but Beveridge, who had been quick to sprint off his line and narrow the path to goal, got just enough to the ball to deflect it wide.
O'Rourke, though, was in rampant form, and not even the heroics of Preston's goalkeeper would keep him at bay.
It was a telling sign of the precocious young striker's determination to succeed when, on 54 minutes, after again finding himself in that inside left channel with just the goalkeeper to beat, he audibly pleaded with the ball to hit the net after steering it round Beveridge from 15 yards.
The ball heeded his encouragement of "please, please" and nestled in the corner to put Seton four goals to the good.
O'Rourke – with the Preston defence static and seemingly under his spell – peeled away from his marker, Warren Fisher, to latch on to yet another finely-weighted forward ball on the hour-mark and predictably beat Beveridge with a powerful finish to make it five.
His team-mates seemed to be sold on this game of goalscoring by now, too. Thomas Stevenson added a touch of variation to the scoresheet on 61 minutes by showing superb reflexes to volley the ball into the net instantly after Beveridge had spilled a corner into his path. Plucky Preston restored some pride in the final minute when Reece Cochrane forced a clumsy challenge to win a penalty. Cochrane himself got up to place the penalty past Joshua McFarlane to make it 6-1.
Seton, somewhat inevitably, had the final say, restoring their advantage to six in the dying seconds. Captain Andrew McMillan connected beautifully with the ball from 20 yards and watched with a smile on his face as the ball crashed off the bar then the post before hitting the top left-hand corner of the net.
Seton BC: Joshua McFarlane, Keith Slater, Jack Wheatley, David Lamond, Blair Robertson, Thomas Stevenson, Fraser Johnston, Daniel O'Rourke, Andrew McMillan, Greg Lauder, Dean Riddell, Scott McPherson, Calum McClure, Robbie McLeod.
Preston Athletic: Kieran Beveridge, Jamie Walker, Reece Cochrane, Dean McKenzie, Warren Fisher, Conor Tully, Dale McCallum, Liam Cook, Liam Brogan, Chalie Laiesk, Ben Cowan, William Wilson.
The full article contains 844 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
