THE City Financial Edinburgh South East Region under-14 cup clash between Bathgate Rose and Leith Athletic only went ahead after a prolonged pitch inspection at Meadow Park in Bathgate by referee Ken Boyd.
Certain parts of the pitch were covered in sand and Leith coach Kevin Kneeshaw was unhappy about the state of the playing surface.
He said: "This is a very important cup tie for both clubs and the ball will not bounce properly in the sanded areas.
When a ball lands in the sand, it stops dead. We play passing football and it will be difficult on this surface."
The game, however, did go ahead and this very good Leith squad emerged 4-0 winners.
One of their goals came from a free-kick where the ball hit a sanded area which took any bounce out of the ball and it shot along the ground deceiving home goalkeeper Gary Thomas on its way into the back of the net.
Despite the four-goal winning margin at the close of play, the home side look as if they could develop into a very good team.
The subtle difference between Bathgate Rose and the exciting Leith squad was in the way the visitors passed the ball and worked together as a team compared to the more individualistic style of running with the ball from the home players.
Leith Athletic were very well organised at the back and they dealt competently with surging runs from the home side. But the Bathgate Rose players may possibly learn from this game that it is far more productive to use each other than try to attack opposition defences in energy-sapping runs.
The outstanding player in this game was also one of the smallest players on the big pitch – Brendan Edwards, the Leith Athletic No.9.
What a very clever, talented footballer this boy is and he scored a goal that can only be described as a "footballer's goal" to make it 4-0 for the visiting side shortly after the start of the second half.
Edwards showed great control and footwork when he won the ball on the left angle of the 18-yard box and he looked up before sending an exceptional swerving shot into the far top corner of the net, leaving goalkeeper Thomas helpless.
Throughout the game, however, Edwards slotted back down the left in the Leith Athletic set-up to help out in defence when Bathgate were on the attack.
He was a prime example of working as a unit in a team and Leith Athletic were deserved winners in the end of what was a very enjoyable and attractive cup tie between two of the top teams in their age groups in different leagues in the Lothian Regions.
Bathgate had an early chance to get a goal when they were awarded a free-kick on the edge of the 18-yard box and Kieran Cook beat the wall in this set-piece, but alert Leith keeper Reece Smail saved the low shot with ease.
Leith raced back to the other end to win a penalty and Edwards slotted the ball past Thomas with great confidence to make it 1-0 for the visitors.
With both sides committed to going forward, there was lots of space to work on the huge pitch and it was really tragic when Bathgate lost a second goal from the free-kick from Gavin Kneeshaw just before the half-time whistle to make it 2-0 for Leith Athletic.
In a blistering start to the second half, the visiting side scored two more goals, the first from Jason Coyle who finished off a tremendous all-out attack on the home goal when he lashed the ball past Thomas through a crowd of players in the Bathgate goalmouth to put Leith 3-0 ahead. In the melee in the home goalmouth, the ball was cleared three times with another shot coming back off the bar, before Coyle applied the finishing touch.
That goal was quickly followed by Edwards' classic strike to put Leith 4-0 up and out of sight of the home team.
Bathgate rallied after losing these two stunning goals and they regained their composure to take the game to Leith at every opportunity. But the damage had been done and the confidence in the Leith ranks never dropped throughout the remainder of the second half.
Leith coach Kneeshaw summed up his feelings at the end of the game when he said: "We played very good football, despite having to play on this pitch.
| I did not think the pitch was playable from the start." It was ironic, that, despite, his misgivings about its condition, that the pitch would benefit Leith Athletic when they scored from their free-kick that hit a patch of sand.
The home side have a lot of good young players in their ranks and they enjoyed a very good spell in the second half, but they were up against a really top-class Leith Athletic squad in this game.
The better side were worthy winners and Brendan Edwards was the star of the show.
Bathgate Rose: Gary Thomas, Declan Lamb, James Duffy, Jack McGurk, Kieran McGonagle, Ian Kirkwood, Scott Smith, James McGrane, Richard Wallace, Kieran Cook, Zack Williams, William Pearson, Daniel Clancy, Grant Cowan, Sean Duncan.
Leith Athletic: Reece Smail, Lloyd McGee, Billy Foreman, Sean Murphy, Keiran Muirhead, Gavin Kneeshaw, Ryan Ward, Brendan Edwards, Jake Harper, Scott Wilson, Jason Coyle, Sean Melvin, Conway Hunter.
Referee: Ken Boyd (Falkirk).
The full article contains 930 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
