Selkirk2
Edinburgh University0
Selkirk enjoyed a superb start to the season on Saturday with a fairly comfortable victory over the Students.
Of course, this is the perfect time of year to play a university side, before term starts and the side gets into full swing.
But this takes nothing away from the wonderful preparatory work put in by coach Steve Forrest and his players, which allowed them to almost completely dictate play despite being missing several players, notably Ouzy See, who rattled in many a goal in the preseason friendlies.
The Souters have an abundance of attacking options, with Garry O’Connor and Phil Addison both looking sharp, a host of goal-hungry midfielders willing to surge forward and still more fire on the bench in John McInally and Jack Hay.
The defence has gelled quickly into a fairly secure unit, which they showed by mostly marking Uni dangermen Jack Guthrie (who scored a hat-trick against Selkirk last October in a 5-4 shoot-out) and Joe Aitken.
And the last line of defence, keeper Jamie Newman, looks to be a fantastic signing, putting in a good shift with a couple of fantastic stand-out saves.
Delighted coach Forrest told us: “We are starting to play the style of football I have wanted to since coming here – we are trying to hold onto the ball, we are moving it quickly.
“It’s taken a wee while for the boys to buy into the whole ethos of what we are trying to do, but they have worked really hard at it.
“I am really delighted to get three points on the board.
“We started off well last season before tailing off, so if we are still doing so well come Christmas, I’ll be a happy man.”
On Saturday, after a suitably nervy start, O’Connor blasted in a couple of efforts – one a deflected shot straight at the keeper and the other a thumping free kick rattling off the Students’ wall .
The next free kick came along in the 15th minute, just outside the area, crying out for a Phil Addison curler. He didn’t disappoint, shooting into Mark Tait’s top corner. Addison went on to hit the bar and for the rest of the half, the home side were as comfortable as a team who are 1-0 up can get, but as everybody knows, you can never be truly comfortable with a single goal lead.
So, after some scary moments in defence, new signing from Berwick Rangers, Ross Gray, showed his class with a nice finish after watching the ball thread through to him in the box with eight minutes left.
The two-goal gap led to a less nervy end to the match as the home side coasted home.