Peebles Rovers 1

Coldstream 4

By Neil Hobson

WHILST largely regarded as the “beautiful game”, sometimes football really can prove to be the most frustrating game on the planet, a harsh lesson that Peebles Rovers learned as they suffered a 4-1 defeat against Coldstream at Home Park last Saturday. Whilst the score line suggests a heavy defeat, this proved to be a case where the result truly failed to reflect the high-quality football that Peebles played.

With pre-season wrapped up after a 0-0 draw against Carluke, a tie against Coldstream in the East of Scotland League Cup was next up for the newly assembled Peebles squad. However, Rovers faced some frustrations before the game, with the squad missing key striker Alan McMath who was struggling with injury and Donovan Ndiweni unavailable for the game.

The match started with both teams struggling to get past each other, and with two defences looking as sharp as tacks, play was generally restricted to sparring in the middle of the park. For the most part, it was a battle that Peebles were winning.

Manager Ger Rossi proving to be a valuable asset in central midfield with powerful tackles that killed numerous Coldstream attacks in their infancy.

This combined with a resolute five across the back, marshalled well by the experienced head of Colin Smith, Coldstream were facing an uphill battle to break down a relatively young, but no-nonsense defence.

However, Peebles soon found themselves behind after Coldstream forward, Rhys Bloomfield made the most of a Smith challenge and flopped into the box, the referee judged it to be inside the box and a penalty was awarded to Coldstream, despite Bloomfield appearing to be outside the box when fouled.

Crawford stepped up to take it and fired past Ben McGinley in goal after 23 minutes. Peebles quickly responded to this setback by launching into another ferocious attack, with Jamie Mackay supplying the ammunition, knocking in a great free kick that David Lindsay very nearly powered past Mark Walters in goal. Michael Cockburn had a fantastic game for Peebles, launching into surging runs up the park that left Coldstream bamboozled.

But, despite some great build-up play, Peebles were just lacking that slight cutting edge to do some damage. When the second goal came, there was very little that the highly impressive back line could do, with Bloomfield floating in a great ball to Wales just outside the box on the right-hand side, a ball that Wales took one touch to control before sending a spectacular strike from 20 yards into the top left hand corner on 40 minutes.

Going into the second-half, Peebles came out the traps flying, eager to land the first punch and get themselves back in it. They resorted to bombarding the home side with crosses from the flanks to pile pressure on the defence. Scott Inglis showed speed and good ball control to deftly cut inside past Paul Hossack and test Walters with a low strike that he just got down to in time. It was inevitable that Peebles would pull one back, and they did on 64 minutes with Inglis getting a head to the ball from a corner to reduce the deficit.

Peebles continued to pile on the pressure with Lee Zavaroni running riot on the left and Lindsay loitering menacingly up front. Ben McGinley also continued to show his fantastic ability between the sticks with a string of impressive saves, a commanding presence and terrific shot-stopping, he may just prove to be the best signing at Whitestone this summer.

That said however, Colin Smith showed what he’s capable of with a terrifying forty-yard effort at the keeper, which Walters barely stopped from ripping the back of the net open.

But, it was another quality long-range strike that was eerily reminiscent of Coldstream’s second goal as Sutherland blasted another pile-driver down the middle. The last goal, and kick, of the game saw more controversy.

The all-action figure of Grant Robinson popped a vicious shot at goal that bounced of the underside of the crossbar and sparked a furious debate about whether it had crossed the line or not.

Despite not having a good view of the incident, the ref decided it had indeed crossed the line, much to the annoyance of the Peebles management team. Robinson’s goal on ninety-minutes saw the whistle blow for full-time, and the Rovers go home empty handed after a hugely impressive performance that wasn’t reflected in the score line.

Speaking after the game, an optimistic Ger Rossi offered his thoughts and looked ahead to the game against Ormiston on Wednesday; He said: “If you look at a 4-1 score, it looks like we’ve been heavily beaten, but in reality it was a well contested match. I thought the boys worked really hard, and on the whole myself, Allan and Bruce have got a lot to be pleased about.”

He continued: “We move forward now, this team has got a lot of heart and desire and we’ll be looking for that again against Ormiston on Wednesday.”

Peebles: B. McGinley, J. Mackay, B. Brown, C. Smith, M. Cockburn, J. Dodds, S. Inglis, L. Zavaroni, G. Rossi, J. Runciman, D. Lindsay

Subs: S. Schulz-Keith, N. McDonald, C. Robertson