A long awaited return to league business beckoned for VAFC and an official debut for the new strips. A trip to Dunbar is always approached with a certain measure of trepidation, how do we get out there? How on earth do I rouse a squad of players to go straight from work to sunny Dunny? Will the sarnies in the bar afterwards be adequate or a disastrous failure? The most important question on this occasion was how do we beat these guys and keep the Owen Coyle Super League campaign in our own hands? The only way to find these answers was a 50 mile round trip and a very difficult 90 minutes on a clammy seaside day.
We did manage to get a squad together with the usual last minute troubles and turned up on the day with a rarely seen sight, a substitute. In goals we had the ever popular Sach, in defence (l-r) J.C Dick (captain, armband missing presumed dead!), Marcin Nowak, Coco Hall, Dex Kinsella. Playing in front of them in midfield were, Kaz, Tulloch, Sean Smith, Olsson, and up front were the inimitable partnership of Owen Kinsella and Mark Valentine, with Louie on the sidelines ready to play in spite of a cracked bone in his foot.
The match got underway pretty sharp as the 6.45 to North Berwick trundled by in stark contrast to the match that was about to be played out at Hallhill. In typical style the match started tight with pressure from both teams, and in even more typical Staggs style after half an hour we were the first of the sides to capitulate and went 1-0 down after a Dunbar attack burst through a high defensive line. However all was not lost and within a couple of minutes the Volleys were right back in the mix after a tremendous shot from Olsson from distance burst the back of the Dunbar net despite their keeper’s best efforts. Already having the psychological upper hand in coming back from a defeceit we set to kill things off before half time and did so through a great piece of work by the dynamic duo of Owen and Val that saw a Dunbar defence left dumbfounded and Val left to slot home past the stranded Dunbar keeper. Shortly after the half time whistle was blown and we went in at half time with a lead but in the knowledge that our defence was looking pretty fractious with a couple near costly errors across the board. To try and stimulate some change and bring in a bit of communication at the back we substituted Marcin for Louie, who despite his broken foot was more than willing to put in a shift.
The second half started with VAFC fast asleep at the back and we were lucky not to concede an equaliser when Dunbar were denied by a fantastic full stretch save from Sach. Constantly pushing and looking to extend the league we were continually leaving ourselves weak at the back and this was soon taken advantage of by a Dunbar counter attack bombing down the wing to score an equaliser. Given that the winner of this match would see themselves reach the heady summit of the Owen Coyle Super League both sides switched to an all out attacking style to nab the 3 points. VAFC were forced to make a change after a harsh tackle on Kaz that saw him replaced by Marcin shortly after half time, and the resultant free kick was taken superbly by Owen curling into the bottom right corner that was cruelly denied by a spectacular save. With both teams in full attack the pressure went back and forth continually and eventually Dunbar snuck back into the lead to really put the pressure on. In a desperate search for an equaliser Staggs picked up the pace with runs coming from everywhere, wings, and even Coco Hall taking a mazy run up the middle of the park. Owen eventually equalised with an effort from a tight angle and with around 20 minutes remaining the pace was frantic. The ensuing carnage saw Owen leather the post and jink past the keeper only to put the ball wide of the net. The most crushing blow came when in the last 2 minutes a Dunbar cross-come-shot went ghosting towards the top right corner and the ball went right over my head to make it 4-3 to Dunbar. The final whistle was blown and disappointment was rife.
A spectacular game that would please football purists all over but unfortunately the result went against us and we were left with the 20 mile trip home pondering all the what ifs and maybes after a round of quality sarnies and the second half of Celtic v Arsenal in the bar after the match. Despite the result it was a fantastic performance from both sides. Many candidates as usual for man of the match but Sach takes the honours after a spectacular performance that kept us in the game time after time.
p.s apologies for the dreadful report, memory is abysmal
