Tuesday 12 February 2019
Penicuik Park
East of Scotland Qualifying Cup Quarter Final
Penicuik Athletic
Starting XI | Robertson, Caddow, Baptie, Young, Notman (Sproule 67), Sampson, Connolly, Somerville (c) (McIntosh 65), Jones, McCrory-Irving
Unused subs | Cordery, Williams, Hamilton, Ponton
University of Stirling
Starting XI | Walker, Slattery, Webb, Mailer, Peden, Miller, Hunter, Emmott, Ferris, Kennedy, McGale
Subs | Brown, McEwan, Lyons, Downie, McGuire, Kane, Allan
A cold crisp night at Penicuik Park saw the Cuikie play host to Lowland League opposition for the first time in a competitive match, as they faced off against Stirling University for a place in the Semi Finals of the Football Nation Qualifying Cup at the second time of asking after the recent weather.The fans who braved the chilly conditions didn’t have much to warm them up early on with the first chance not coming until the twelfth minute when a Jones cut back across goal was turned over the bar for a corner by Webb with Somerville lurking. Slattery would go close for the visitors, shooting wide following Page’s clearing header falling to him. The game was beginning to come to life and some excellent goalkeeping from Walker denied both Sampson and Jones from opening the scoring. With play going from end to end, it was Penicuik who would break the deadlock just before halftime. A throw in on the left saw a nice interchange between Baptie, McCrory-Irving and Jones saw the latter get in a shot at goal. However the effort was blocked and broke to debutant Steven NOTMAN who stroked the ball into the bottom right corner to end the half on a high.
HALFTIME | Penicuik Athletic 1-0 University of Stirling
Stirling had the opening chance of the second half with McGale firing over while Penicuik claimed the ball had went out of play. Somerville would force another excellent save from Walker as he sprung the offside trap and attempted to lob the ball over Walker, who managed to get his fingertips to it and push it over the bar. Walker would again deny Jones but the second goal would come on fifty-four minutes as Walker attempted to launch the ball forward, his kick rebounded off the back of Somerville and Kyle SAMPSON reacted quickest to fire the ball into the back of the net from a tight angle despite Stirling protests. The third goal didn’t take long to arrive as two minutes later, a Ryan Baptie corner was met at the back post area by Darrell YOUNG whose header ended up in the bottom corner with Sampson’s dummy catching out the Stirling defence. A couple of changes for both sides saw Stirling grow into the game more and create a few half chances, substitute Lyons and Brown both having opportunities. Penicuik would come close to a fourth as a Jones drive from twenty yards kissed the bottom left post with Walker beaten. An entertaining game came to an end with Penicuik now advancing to the Semi Finals where they will travel to Ainslie Park to take on last season’s Lowland League Champions Spartans on Friday the 22nd of March, their third semi-final in the past twelve months.
FULLTIME | Penicuik Athletic 3-0 University of Stirling