Insch 5 - Postal ALC 0 - AFC Trophy - Recreation Park - 17/9/22

TEAM - 1. D.Cruickshank 2. R.Webster 3. A.Baxter 4. S.Carter 5. B.Patterson 6. M.Hunter 7. A.Clark 8. J.Steele. 9. L.Melia 10. B.Webster 11. P.Frampton 12. K.Dowbekin 14. N.Wiley. 15. S.Cotovici. 16. Luca Giulianotti

OPPOSITION MOTM – N/A

On a damp mid September afternoon, Postal travelled to premier division side Insch for this AFC Trophy first round tie.

Realistically it would take a miracle for Postal to win this trophy given it involves every team in the AAFA but the away side were keen to make sure the Insch knew they had been in a game.

Postal were immediately on the defensive and Insch had the ball in the net after only 2 minutes. Luckily, the referee deemed that the Postal keeper had been fouled before the ball was bundled into the back of the net.

Postal were competing well but found themselves lucky not to go behind on 14 minutes. A sclaffed punch out from a cross into the Postal box saw it fall at the feet of an unmarked Insch player. Luckily for Postal he sent his shot high and wide. A real let off.

On 20 minutes Postal were starting to threaten more coming forward with Frampton causing a bit of problems with him pace down the left. On one occasion he was fouled just outside the box. The free kick was cleared by the keeper only as far as right back Ross Webster. He fired in a good low shot which fell to Frampton’s feet but his snapshot went over the bar.

Insch had another chance on 35 minutes when a freekick into the box was allowed to drop into the back post area unchallenged. Luckily for Postal, again, it went just by the post.

Although Postal were holding their own, they weren’t really creating any chances against a well drilled Insch defence.

They held on to go in at half time all square, and looking forward to the second half.

HALF TIME – Insch 0 - POSTAL ALC – 0

That was about as good as it got for Postal as Insch stepped up a gear in the second half.

On 5 minutes they took the lead. Postal stood off the home player and let him take a shot (from about 30 yards out) and he fired in a worldy into the keepers top right hand corner. Not much we could have done about that except close the ball down a bit quicker. 1-0

On ten minutes a short back header from Patterson saw an Insch player bare down on goal but luckily his shot went round the post.

Five minutes later and Insch effectively killed the tie. Annoyingly it came from a Postal attack, but when they gave the ball away, Insch sent a ball up the park causing confusion between Carter and the Postal keeper. An Insch forward nipped in between the two to knock home the second. 2-0.

Another annoying goal 20 minutes into the half. Postal attacking a corner, when the home side again counter attacked at pace and scored another with Postal now short manned at the back. 3-0.

On 25 minutes, Postal got away with one when keeper Cruickshank came off his line and clattered into an Insch fwd in the box. Luckily for Postal the ref waved play on.

On 35 minutes, a simple enough looking high ball wasn’t dealt with by Postal. Keeper ran out, but Insch forward got to the ball first and nutmegged him to score. 4-0.

Postal had a chance to make the scoreline a bit more respectable with 5 minutes to go but Clark’s free kick skimmed the top of the Insch crossbar before going out.

In the last minute of the game Insch scored a 5th. Under no pressure, Patterson was robbed of the ball in the Postal right back position. The resultant square pass was fired into the net. 5-0.

Overall, a very decent first half from Postal without really creating any chances. Second half was poor, defensively but, again, cant fault the effort. Some lessons to be learned when playing teams from a higher division but cant be overly critical. All the best to Insch in the next round.