Pollok Football Club

Recap

The goal from Mark Donnelly:

Match day thirteen of the league campaign saw Pollok host Rossvale in a return fixture having triumphed 6-1 in the game at Petershill Park in early August. After two extremely positive results against rivals from the upper echelons of the division the team which took to the park saw five changes from the previous Saturday with the most notable being Esplin missing out on the starting eleven for the first time this season.

Rossvale won a free kick from the kick off and floated it in to the box where it was headed on to the bar. An early scare for the home side and one which spurred them into action as they hemmed in Rossvale for large periods.

Duff was playing in central midfield but it was when he went out wide that he was able to produce a telling ball into the box. The ball broke for Graham whose shot on the turn was straight at the keeper with Forde perhaps better placed for the attempt at goal.

Further attempts at goal from Horne, Forde and Lyon followed but nothing to overly trouble Gordon in goal. The Rossvale keeper was to take his first giant step towards man of the match when a McKenzie cross found Forde unmarked in the six yard box. His guided volley seemed destined to bring the first goal until Gordon flung himself to his left to claw the ball away on the goal-line. A stunning save his international namesake would have been proud of.

The home side kept attacking and further efforts came from Lyon, Forde and Graham with the later seeing a good chance denied by the feet of Gordon. A terrible back pass by Horne gifted Rossvale a one on one with the keeper but Lumsden did superbly to dive at the striker’s feet and get his teammate off the hook. Gordon then denied Forde from point blank range once again after great work down the right by Graham.

As half time approached a Pollok attack saw Duff, Lyon, Forde and Graham all have shots blocked or saved in what can only be described as a goalmouth stramash. From the corner Evans headed wide. Forde had one final acrobatic effort go over the bar before the teams went in at half time with the game goal-less.

The second half was following the same pattern as the first and the best chance of this period fell to Graham after Forde had produce a nice touch and a defence splitting pass to send his strike partner through on goal. However the striker’s shot was sliced wide. Evans had to go off injured in the 53rd minute to be replaced by Wharton however it was the substitute who arrived ten minutes later that was to bring the home side a goal. Esplin and McCann had replace Duff and Graham as the Pollok manager searched for the key to unlock the resolute Rossvale defence.

McKenzie and Lyon were probing down the left and when their first advance was half cleared Sideserf stepped in to keep the attack alive. This time Lyon was able to cut it back to Esplin on the edge of the box who steadied himself before unleashing an unstoppable right foot shot into the top corner. There was a fair bit of relief amongst the cheers from the home fans that the deadlock had finally been broken with just over fifteen minutes to go.

Having dominated for so long it would have been easy to think that the three points were now in the bag and sit back but to their credit Pollok went looking for a second with Lyon, McKenzie and Forde all denied by the impressive Gordon as the shots continued to rain in on goal with little in the way of scares for the home defence.

A third  consecutive league game with a clean sheet sets the Southsiders up nicely for a third v fourth clash against Kilwinning although the injuries show little signing of clearing up with Evans joining Fraser, Weir and Gallacher amongst others on the side-lines.

Highlights from Mark Donnelly:

Murdo MacKinnon’s post-match thoughts:

Att: 437

Pollok welcome Rossvale to Newlandsfield on Saturday in the West Of Scotland Football League Premier Division.

On the back of a big win away to Clydebank last weekend, Pollok will be hoping to keep their winning ways going. Goals from Josh Weir and Adam Forde secured the 2-0 win last week, Weir moves on to 5 goals this season, with Forde extending his record to 8.

While Pollok picked up the 3 points at Holm Park, Rossvale beat Troon at New Petershill Park, 2-0. That result would see Rossvale sit 15th in the league table with a record of 4 wins, 1 draw, 8 defeats, 21 goals scored and 35 conceded, they have 13 points. They have added another defender to the squad as 6ft5 Conor Morgan tries to help bolster their defence. A win for Rossvale could see them jump up to 10th in the league, while defeat could see them drop to 17th, in a tightly congested middle to lower half of the table.

Pollok are still 4th in the table with 26 points and are now two points behind both Clydebank and Kilwinning, Talbot are first with 32 points.

We don’t have to go back too far for the last game between the clubs, just over a month ago, August 7 as Pollok left New Petershill Park with a 6-1 win, first half goals from Mark Sideserf, Callum Graham and Adam Forde, added to by Bryan Wharton, Shaun Fraser and Josh Weir in the second half.