Dunbar United 1 v Dalkeith Thistle 0 - SJFA East Premier League

Saturday 19th August 2017
Scottish Junior FA. McBookie.com East Premier League
at New Countess Park
Dunbar United (0) 1
Chris King 85 pen
Dalkeith Thistle (0) 0
Admission £6. Attendance 103
Thanks to Michael Addy for his help with the times/substitutions
Photo gallery: CLICK HERE

Dunbar United:
John Johnstone, Keith Tait (Steven Kean 82), Kenny Hall (Steven Tait 61), Darren Gillon, Kevin Smith, Scott Gibson, Kieran Ingram, Chris Hogg, Fraser McLaren (Chris King 68), Darren Handling, Dean Ballantyne.
Unused Subs - Zach Szemis,  James Harley
Dalkeith Thistle:
James McQueen, John Robertson (James Redpath 82), Shaun Murray (Chris Cairns 61), Ryan McQueenie, Dean Whitson, Tyron McLean, Lewis Cairns, James Laing, Paul Tansey, Jordan Bain (Ross Connell 88), Kenneth McMillan.
Unused Sub - Jack Findlay

If you should venture to Countess Park to peruse a game of association football... and once you have read my introduction pertaining to what an veritable hotbed of the beautiful game the Scottish Junior FA East Premier League is, I am sure that you will be sorely tempted to do just that... and your sat nav, or hand held device of choice (don't use it while you're driving, of course) suggests that you approach the football ground via Countess Road, I can almost guarantee that you will miss the access to the ground and go past it. I did. Twice in fact.

So here is an idiot proof guide to getting there, sans driving up and down the same road several times, like a pillock.

Opposite Countess Laundry, there is a pathway that runs alongside the fire station and leads through an opening underneath the East Coast Mainline. 

This is slightly obscured by overgrown vegetation, but it is there if you look closely enough, and this access will take you straight to the entrance of New Countess Park when you turn left, having reached the far side of the ECML.

Be aware, there are only four parking spaces next to the entrance, but you can abandon your vehicle anywhere you see fit on Countess Road, because going on today's evidence the double yellow lines are there purely for decorative purposes only, and nobody else seemed unduly concerned about them. The car parked directly outside the bijou library being a case in point.

If you approach the ground from the other end (AKA the west), you'll see an array of immaculately tended rugby and football pitches, and a find a very spacious car park there too. 

But you will have missed an important historic site by not passing the primary school on Countess Road, that stands behind a length of retaining wall, which is all that is left of Dunbar United's previous ground, that they played at before relocating to their current home seventeen years ago.

Thanks to DUFC committee member Gordon Maitland for this (and more) useful information to help me familiarise myself with the lay of the land at, and around, New Countess Park this afternoon.

Having enjoyed a productive pre-season, in which they won four and drew one of their half a dozen friendly matches; Dunbar were looking forward to their first ever season in the Premier Division, but since drawing 3-3 with Glenrothes, at home, in the opening game of the campaign, they have subsequently lost their last three games, shipping in fourteen goals while scoring seven, a run that includes a 6-0 loss when Musselburgh were the visitors to New Countess Park earlier this month.

The locals who I spoke to before the game were not anticipating a home win or a low scoring game.

Kevin Haynes 'Jags' side arrived at Dunbar, on the back of an impressive 2-0 win at Tranent Juniors (one of the favourites for the league title) on Wednesday night. 

But prior to that Dalkeith had suffered three defeats in a row too, including a 6-0 reversal at home against Haddington Athletic.

Today's result saw Dunbar leapfrog Dalkeith in the table, and claw their way up from the bottom place to 13th (in a 16 team league), level on points with Glenrothes who have conceded less and scored more goals than the Seasiders, while Thistle slid to fifteenth, where they are now above Downfield on goal difference alone, and also level on points with Arniston Rangers (the only Premier division team not to have won a game this season, yet) who have only conceded eight goals thus far in their opening five games.

The East Lothian coastal town of Dunbar is dubbed 'Sunny Dunny' round these parts and according to the Met Office, boasts the most daylight hours and sunshine, coupled with the lowest rainfall, in the whole of Scotland, but the weather today could best be described as 'subject to immediate change', with resplendent sunlight, giving way to dull and overcast skies, followed pissing rain (which made a right bleedin' mess of the team list board and produced a ghoulish kind of Halloween font) and then we were treated to glorious sunshine again. 

The only constant was the unrelenting stiff wind that howled across the park all afternoon, creating the surreal sight of seagulls flying backwards across the ground as they vaingloriously struggled to make any headway into the oncoming billowing gusts. 

There was an obvious solution to that conundrum mind you, but on today's evidence, the Herring Gull and Yellow Legged Gull (that latter is considered by many to be a species derivative of the former) are by far the stupidest of sea birds and both respective species, in and around Dunbar, will be extinct soon anyway, because the majority of their number will either have been decapitated by a stray goal kick, or electrocuted and decimated on the overhead lines, or smashed to bits by an Inter City train on the nearby East Coast Mainline... and then sold on as a delicacy to the £11.90 per head, all you can eat, Chinese buffet style restaurant; that I bravely, if rather foolishly, ventured into with my family last night. But, I was hungry and the 'bird' meat tasted alright, so Que Sera!

All hell broke loose when Right said Fred invaded the pitch

Dunbar got the game underway and before long both keepers were seeing plenty of the ball, as the wind dictated that these two evenly matched sides would have to overcome the elements, as well as each other.
Both teams tried to use the conditions to their advantage in the opening exchanges, but Chris Hogg's cross inside the first minute was cleared by the Thistle captain Dean Whitson, while at the other end, John Johnson punched away Paul Tansey's long knock into United's area.
James McQueen denied Dean Ballantyne twice in quick succession; smothering the ball by his post from the Dunbar forward's low shot in the first instance and plucking an attempt to chip him from under the crossbar in the second.

Tyron McLean played an inviting ball into the feet of Tansey but the striker's goal attempt crashed off of a Dunbar defender and Johnstone did well to get behind Jordan Bain's first time strike from Tansey's knock a few minutes later.

The pendulum swung Dunbar's way again, following a spell of pressure by their visitors and when Ballantyne was tripped by McLean, but McQueen turned Hogg's onto the woodwork at full stretch and Kev Smith headed Kiearn Ingram's corner kick just wide of the upright.
The host side were stubbornly standing up to Dalkeith's efforts to make ground in their own half, although McLean was proving to be a handful to keep an eye on, but they were having no luck at all in front of  the Dalkeith goal, with McQueen handling well when called upon, to keep Geoff Jones team at bay.

John Robertson (no, not the former Nottingham Forest and Scotland winger, but a far more youthful looking 'Robbo') advanced quickly through the right channel and unleashed a stinging shot, that Scott Gibson blocked.... or least-ways, couldn't get out of the way of.

Tansey was thwarted by a last ditch challenge from Darren Handling, and the ball bounced away at the expense of a corner to the visitors, but Johnstone calmly collected James Laing's flag kick.

Once again play switched ends and Ballantyne was unlucky to see his speculative attempt from outside the area, pushed around the left hand post by McQueen.

On the stroke of half time, Handling was flattened by Laing, just inside Thistle's half of the pitch.

Spotting McQueen had strayed off his line and using the wind to his advantage Hogg launched a long free kick, that had too much welly behind it for Gibson to connect with, but dropped narrowly wide of the upright with the Dalkeith keeper stranded out of position.

HT: Seasiders 0 v Jags 0

Fair play to both sides, who came out after the break, still trying to play some decent football, even though it must've been a bind at times, as the Saltire adorned with the Dunbar crest, was flapping like mad and threatening to blow off of it's pole and away into the distance at any moment.
Fraser McLaren, whose unselfish work and distribution all afternoon had allowed both Ballantyne and Handling to find the room to shine, held up the ball before threading it to the former, who had made a run to his left, but McQueen got across to his right at full stretch and turned the ball away at the expense of a corner.
Hogg's left wing corner caused chaos in the Thistle six yard box, but when the visitors second half clearance sat up in front of Ballantyne on the edge of the area, he whistled a shot inches past the right hand post.

Dalkeith brushed themselves down and picked up the pace of the game again, with Ken McMillan releasing the live-wire McLean down the left flank, who, in turn, delivered a well weighted pass into the path of Shawn Murray, but Darren Gillon had been tracking back and headed the incoming cross away to safety.
McLaren headed over the bar as Dunbar came back at their visitors.
Laing tried to deceive Johnstone with a long shot, but his effort lacked power and the United keeper was untroubled.
The weather almost caught Dunbar's shot stopper out from Thistle's next attack, but when Bain's left wing cross held up in the wind, the keeper managed to snatch the ball away from danger with Tansey homing in.

Handling went close again from Ballantyne's knock across the face of the Dalkeith goal.

The visitors were trying to get in behind the Dunbar defence by using wide runs from Tansey and McLean, but Gilllon was marshalling his well organised defence superbly and the visitors were being repelled in the final third as the game wore on.

However, Thistle substitute Chris Cairns was unlucky not to score with his first touch, forcing Johnstone into making a fine reflex save after connecting with Bains cross.

In the 68th minute, United introduced Chris King from the bench, a versatile all rounder, who for purposes of clarification at this juncture, I shall say, put in great effort in his position of 'game changer'.

Dunbar finished the game strongly in the final fifteen minutes or so, during which time, King's input was without a doubt, the main difference between the two sides that helped to nudge Dunbar over the finishing line with all three points, with a goal scored by King himself with just five minutes remaining.
Two corner kicks from King, both picked out Ingram, whose first header was turned away by McQueen, while his second skimmed over the crossbar after taking a deflection off Ryan McQueenie.
Ingram was denied again, twice, almost inevitably from a brace of deliveries from King, with both McQueenie and Cairns, putting themselves in the line of fire.

Handling turned and left Whitson in his wake and as he was odds on to score, the Dalkeith captain had little option but to trip the Dunbar number ten.
Likewise, the referee, Michael Addy, had no choice whatsoever but to blow up and point to the spot. McQueen guessed right, or left if you wish to be pedantic and went the correct way to meet King's spot kick, but the former Newtongrange Star (AKA Nitten Star) player had planted his shot just beyond the keeper's reach.

Right at the death, Tansey had an opportunity to snatch a late draw, but he got his angles all wrong from a free kick fifteen yards out and Johnstone was in no hurry whatsoever the take the resulting goal kick... and who can blame him for that!?

FT: Dunbar United 1 v Dalkeith Thistle 0

Next Saturday Dunbar United travel to Whitburn Juniors, while Dalkeith Thistle welcome Blackburn United to Kings Park. 

I'll be at St. Andrews myself... no, not the one on the east coast of Scotland, 86 miles north (by road) from Dunbar; but the home of Birmingham City, where Reading will be the visitors.

Good luck to Dunbar and Dalkeith for the remainder of their respective seasons, the people who I met from both towns, on my trip over the border, were friendly, knowledgeable and a credit to their clubs.

And the final word belongs to the referee Mr Addy, who did well to keep a competitive game, featuring two clubs who were 'very keen' to bag all three points today, flowing, in what must've been very trying conditions, which made light work of the Richter scale from the off.

Well played that man.