Bridgend United v Silverknowes Vale
1-3
8th September 2007 Auldhill Park
The weather conditions were in stark contrast of what the original cup tie was played in the week before, with glorious sunshine and slight breeze as opposed to the rain and strong winds at Silverknowes. It was Silverknowes that started the brightest with a long ball into the box which met Cunningham who headed back across goal only for the defenders to clear, then another long ball into the box and Cunningham again getting his head to it and causing confusion in the Bridgend defence. It wasn't long until Silverknowes took the lead, with Henderson floating a freekick into the box for Mathieson to turn and volley past the goalkeeper. Bridgend should have equalised shortly afterwards when a corner came in from the right, the Bridgend centre half had a free header at the back post but somehow managed to head it over the bar from 6 yards. Mason then pulled off a great save, when beating out a powerful 20 yard strike from the Bridgend midfielder, which he must have saw very late as it came through a ruck of players. This spurred Silverknowes on again and twice came close to doubling their lead, when Mounsey went close after good link up play with Stewart Manson and Cunningham, then Mathieson firing over from the edge of the box. Silverknowes thought they had scored a second when the Bridgend keeper, defender and Mounsey collided, Mounsey then headed across the box for Cunningham to lob the ball over the Bridgend defender into the empty net, only for the referee to bizarrely rule it out. The second did come along and a beauty it was. A long ball from Henderson over the top of the Bridgend left back allowed Mathieson to run in behind the defence and then a majestic lob from 25 yards looped into the top corner. Almost seconds later it was three. Mathieson tussled for a ball in the middle of the park and played it to Cunningham, who held off the defender before laying it off to Mathieson. He then played a great ball into the path of the on rushing Mounsey and his first time shot flew into the left hand corner of the net. A good solid first half performance
HT 0-3
The game should have been over minutes into the second half when again the impressive Mathieson fed in Cunningham, his shot was just saved by the outstretched leg of the keeper and behind for a corner. Then came the expected onslaught from Bridgend, who managed to carve out some great positions only to find Stuart Buckley and Dickson in outstanding form. Mason also had to pull off some terrific point blank saves from goal mouth scrambles and looked like earning his first shut out for Silverknowes, but unfortunately it wasnt to be and so typical of his performance that the only way he was going to be beaten was a cruel wicked deflected own goal. The ball was swung across from the left and a weak shot from the striker hit Dickson and past Mason. Bridgend were obviously buoyed by this and again got themselves into great positions but could not execute the final ball. Stewart Manson was enjoying a lot more space in the second half with Bridgend pushing forward and if anything was going to happen for Silverknowes it was going to be through him. Minutes before the end Cunningham was looking to put the game to bed went sent through on goal. He knocked the ball past the keeper and would have had an empty net to roll the ball into but was taken out late and high by the Bridgened goalkeeper, resulting in a red card for the keeper and Cunningham unable to continue the game. The game petered out in the final few minutes and Silverknowes stayed on course to progress into the third round of the Logan cup.
FT 1-3
Team Mason, Henderson, Savage, Stu.Buckley, Dickson, Mounsey(Horler), Hildersley, Finlayson, St.Manson, Mathieson, Cunningham(D.Manson)