Ardrossan Winton Rovers Archive
Season 2004-05
SATURDAY 27TH NOVEMBER 2004
WINTON WORK FOR VICTORY
| Ardrossan Winton Rovers | 5 |
| Whitletts Victoria | 2 |
Stagecoach Ayrshire District League
WINTON remain top of the Ayrshire league after a hard work out against a much improved Whitletts side who will no doubt get better as the season progresses under the new management of Sam McGivern and Jim Geddes.
This game was played under atrocious conditions but the ever reliable Winton Park surface held out well during the heavy rain that fell almost non-stop.
Winton were the first to threaten when a Mark McCann free kick was headed just over by Dougie Johnstone.
Winton had more chances early in the game with McCann going close with a long drive and Hoots Harvey seeing a header cleared but on 12 minutes it was 1-0 for the hosts when a lovely delivery from a McCann corner saw Johnstone rise and fire a header home.
Whitletts came back and forced Stuart Robertson into a good save at the near post.
Whitletts did get back on level terms on 21 minutes after some poor work by the Winton defence trying to clear a cross from the left allowed Ross McCulloch to hit a dipping shot from 25 yards that went into the top corner of the net.
Winton were rocked and Whitletts enjoyed a good spell at this time.
The home side, though went back ahead in bizarre circumstances when they won a corner on the half hour mark and a poor delivery from McCann saw Andrew Barrett of Whitletts slice the ball into his own net to give Winton the lead.
Winton almost extended their lead when a Johnstone header was cleared off the line but the next goal was not long in coming after Alan Auld hit a poor bye kcik and Scott Weir beat his man to thread a lovely ball to Hoots Harvey who made no mistake in 35 minutes to make it 3-1.
Whitletts almost got a goal back on 40 minutes following a poor clearance from a corner but on 44 minutes it was 4-1 when Clelland latched onto some indecisiveness in the Whitletts back four to shoot home.
Whitletts did come back into the game early in the second half and Chris Skippen came cloase with a drive from long range.
In 60 minutes Winton played some lovely one touch passes to set up Harvey but as the ball got stuck on the now sticky surface he was forced to go round the keeper but the angle was too tight to get a shot on target.
Whitletts got a goal back on 80 minutes and this was down to a bad mistake in defence by Easton who instead of launching the ball up the park, miss hit a pass to Robert Kelly who had the easiest of tasks of slotting the ball home.
Paul Templeton was then instrumental in setting up Clelland with a chance but the ball was sent wide of the post.
Templeton was influential in the latter stages as Winton went out to seal the game and in the last minute a good pass by Harvey to Templeton saw his low cross only parried by Gilluley and Ross Halliday was on hand to stroke the ball home.
WINTON: Robertson, McMillam, Connelly, Johnstone,
Easton, McCann,
Crawford, Harvey, Weir, Muir.
Subs: Templeton, Halliday, Boothman, Wilson, Brown.
WHITLETTS: Gilluley, Auld, Barrett, Graham,
R Skippen, Kelly,
C Skippen, McCulloch, Hindleston, McPherson, Davidson.
Subs: Douglas, Smith, Miller, Cornochay, MacDougall.
This match report has been reproduced by kind permission the editor, Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald.