No sunshine on Leith for Vale as winning run ends

Published 16 Oct 2009 10:30 0 Comments

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Leith Athletic 3 v3 Vale of Leithen

It's a sight that we may all have to get used to before long.

The huddle originated in American football during the 1890s, when Paul Hubbard, a deaf player with Gallaudet University in Washington DC, gathered his team mates together into a circle to conceal sign language between plays.

Having spread to other sports and popularised in Scottish football by Celtic, it's been introduced at Vale by manager Rab Paget and certainly seems to have done no harm.

But in a move that would have no doubt pursed the lips of football traditionalists everywhere, both teams gathered for a huddle before the game, with Leith even having another before the start of the second half.

Huddles apart, there were other factors to consider.

Although the issue had been settled prior to kick off, it was naïve to think that the events of the week leading up to the game documented elsewhere still wouldn't still have some bearing on proceedings.

The six yellow cards gathered by Leith proved an accurate reflection of their approach.

The presence of three ex-Vale players in the home side's line up and former Leith captain Mike Stewart representing Vale was always going to add spice to the game anyway and it didn't disappoint a healthy crowd at Marine Drive.

Leith drew first blood in the tenth minute, as Euan Campbell superbly curled home a free kick from the edge of the area. But within a couple of minutes, Vale drew level when Aaron Somerville rose to powerfully head a Greig Shortreed free kick into the net.

The Innerleithen side took the lead in the 28th minute when Somerville stepped over a pass inside by Andy Martin, the ball running into the path of Darren Gillon, who sent a beauty of a strike flying into the top corner from 25 yards.

Ten minutes into the second half Vale stretched their lead with another fine goal. Gillon appeared to have lost possession of the ball wide on the left, but dogged persistence saw him manage to poke it across to Somerville, who twisted and turned his way into the area, before calmly placing the ball beyond goalkeeper Iain Gordon.

Having put themselves in the driving seat, it all went a bit wrong for Vale in the final half hour of the game.

In the 66th minute substitute Ousman Sonko needlessly fouled Mark Duthie near the corner flag. Duthie drove the free kick into the box which was eventually deflected to Chris Beaton all on his own at the back post, who dispatched it into the net.

An equaliser looked inevitable as Vale found themselves on the back foot against a Leith side who had rediscovered their self-belief and it arrived in the 74th minute as Beaton threaded a defence-splitting pass through to Campbell, who shot past an exposed Darren Walker.

Vale of Leithen: D. Walker; G. Tainsh, G. Shortreed, M. Stewart, J. Hall, P. Greenhill, A. Martin, D. Gillon, S. Dongo (S. Moffat 79), D. Jones (O. Sonko 61), A. Somerville.

This article appeared in Peeblesshire News 16 Oct 09

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