22nd December 2021 Musselburgh Athletic 2 Tranent Juniors 2

 

Well it looks like we are going into a ‘’mini’ lockdown as it was announced yesterday that crowds at outdoor sporting events would be limited to five hundred people from Boxing Day. The restrictions will apply for at least three weeks and may be extended depending on the spread of the omicron covid virus variant. I can understand the rationale behind the decision but think it should have been introduced a week earlier given that almost one hundred thousand people attended matches in Glasgow over the weekend. Talks are continuing as how how Scotttish football will cope with the new rules but it looks like Hearts may be playing at least three matches behind closed doors. I could have gone to watch Penicuik last night but gave it a miss due to the weather. However today was milder and I decided to go to Musselburgh for their EoS league fixture against Tranent. After an early meal, given the 19.00 kickoff, I walked down to Haymarket and caught a 26 bus to Musselburgh. Arrived at the Ship Inn around 18.45 and and walked the short distance to Olivebank where after showing my Fanbase electronic ticket I was in the ground, with a free programme, well in advance of the kickoff. I wandered into the covered enclosure where I got a message from Jim saying he was on the open terrace directly opposite. I went across there to meet him and thankfully he had an umbrella given the intermittent rain throughout the match. 

It was going to be an interesting match tonight. Tranent are third in the league with forty-five points while Musselburgh are fourth with forty. Musselburgh had been defeated 6-0 at home by third placed Linlithgow on Saturday so were looking to get back into a winning mode. Both sides are managed by former Hearts player. Joe Hamill is player/manager at Musselburgh having over from Haddington earlier in the season. Callum Elliot moved from Tynecastle to take over at Tranent in the close season. Musselburgh had got striker Aaron Murrel on loan from Spartans and he had scored a few goals. However he picked up an injury a fortnight ago and will now be out until his loan expires in January. Tranent have been fighting with Penicuik for the top spot in the league this season. However over the past few weeks they seem to have fallen away slightly despite signing regular goal scorer, and former Penicuik player, Wayne McIntosh from Whitehill Welfare.  McIntosh scored five times against Whitehill in one of his first games for Tranent. 

Musselburgh started the game well and took the leading twelve minutes. The ball came to Conor Thomson about twenty yards out on the right of the penalty box. His shot was hit straight at the Tranent Trials keeper. I thought he should have saved the ball but although he got a touch it went past him into the net. Musselburgh continued to have most of the possession in the first half although neither side really made any clear chances. At lot of our entertainment as provided by the Musselburgh bench. We were standing just to the right of the bench area and the poor linesman on that side was getting a lot of flack from the substitutes. When the linesman did not raise his flag for McIntosh being clearly offside he received a torrent of abuse from the bench despite the ball going through to McRae in the Musselburgh goal without any touch from the Tranent striker. There was another incident when the ball came of the referee and the bench party were claiming the game should have been played on when the referee stopped played and warded a dropped ball which Musselburgh were awarded. It sometimes surprises me how many footballers are unaware of the rules of the game. 

Musselburgh went 2-0 ten minutes into the second half. Declan O’Kane fed the ball to Jordan Smith just inside the Tranent penalty area. Smith facing away from goal turned his marker and then lobbed the ball over the Trialist keeper as he rushed from his goal. Having previously played with Tranent the striker enjoyed his goal. Musselburgh we’re now in control of the game with Bradley Ehyte causing a lot of problems for Tranent on the left hand side of the pitch. Tranent however got back into the game after seventy four minutes. A corner from the left was nor cleared by the Musselburgh defence and Euan Greig’s header crosssed the line before being cleared. As the game moved into injury time Tranent equalised. Another corner from the left was not cleared and Euan Bald volley home from six yards at the far post. After the goal Musselburgh substitute Jacky Myles and Tranent's McIntosh had a bit of ‘handbags’ which resulted in yellow cards for both players.

After the final whistle I walked back to the High Street and a 44 bus arrived in a couple of minutes. I changed onto a 1 in Princes Street and was home just after ten o’clock.

Teams

Musselburgh Athletic: McRae, Donaldson, Reid, Page, McManus, O'Keefe, Smith, Fiddler, Thomson, Ballantyne, Whyte.

Subs: Jeffries, Downie, Myles

Tranent Juniors: Trialist, Stevenson, Rutherford, Bald, Donaldson, Anderson, Docherty, Murphy, McIntosh, Wringe, Knox.

Subs: Greig, Somerville, Trialist