04/06/99 AC Celtic 6 Parscelona 2

June 4th, 1999
AC Celtic 6 Parscelona 2
Peffermill Playing Fields, Edinburgh

PARSCELONA SQUAD :

Subs:
Jamie Wilson
Alex Mercer
Alasdair Mercer
Paul Schyma


Scorers for Parscelona:
Colin McKean
Alan Maxwell

My apologies for the lack of detail in the following report, but come on, I was playing - I didn't have time to make notes.

Not the best of conditions for a football match, with a reasonably strong wind and a pitch that Edinburgh University should be ashamed of. Parscelona elected to play with the wind in the first half, leaving AC Celtic to find their feet in the centre sandpit for kick-off.

The wind which should have been used to our advantage proved to be more of a curse as the few balls which made it past the defence seemed to be grabbed by the wind and hurtled off the pitch. Credit where credit's due though - Celtic's defence were first to a lot more balls than we were.

So much for the advantage of having the wind behind us - despite some occasionally neat play and some close efforts from Colin McKean (just wide), Alan Maxwell (saved), and Paul Schyma (rattled off the post and out of play), Parscelona went in 2-0 down.

Parscelona picked it up in the second half, and some excellent passing play culminated in a superb one-two by Jamie Miller and the ball making its way to Colin McKean. Perhaps a small break of the ball inside the box, but nevertheless a superb build-up and a terrific finish by Colin.

Some more near misses, this time from Colin and Stuart, showed that Parselona were not out of it, but alas the scoreline said otherwise. Celtic's almost immediate response of a third goal was followed by another, taking a cruel deflection off Davie Galloway [note that it was a "deflection" and not an own goal - Davie will have you believe there's a big difference :) ]. Another goal, perhaps not surprisingly conceded from a corner, took it to 5-1.

Parscelona responded with another good move, and after a few failed attempts to get the ball into Celtic's box, the chance finally came with an inch-perfect pass from Ross Arnott on an attacking charge. Alan Maxwell leapt up majestically to hammer home from twenty yards... well, that's how it happened in my mind anyway - other people may suggest that in actual fact I was six yards out, the ball hit my knee, trundled across the face of the goal and rolled in off the far post.

A legendary fightback was averted thanks to a final goal by Celtic. A good save from keeper Ross Bremner stopped what might have been a seventh, and the game finished 6-2.

We didn't play as well as we could have or should have, and should have scored at least a couple more, but to be fair Celtic played the better football overall and we were gubbed fair and square. Also, an honourable mention must be made in acknowledgement of the referee, who made an excellent job of refereeing the game and keeping the game in friendly spririts, despite a few nasty words and some stray tackles.

Comments from the Pars mailing list

"AC Celtic 6 Parscelona 2
For Parscelona - a well-worked goal banged in by (wait for it...) Colin McKean, and one from me (if you thought I couldn't get any jammier than my previous goal, you were wrong)."
- Alan

"don't worry,i'll be back for the next game to bite their legs off.
51,000 to see the stones at murrayfield and they were brillant."
- Ronz

"Yes, Alan was right, we lost 6-2 to AC Celtic on Friday night. Firstly, thank you to everyone who gave up their time to come along and play, I can really feel some team spirit coming through! We also had a great night out in Edinburgh afterwards with the AC Celtic players, we went to Doctors, Finnegans Wake and Berties and a great time was had by all - see what you're missing, all you potential Parsca players!
As for the game, I thought the first half was not bad at all, we were only losing 1-0 at the break and that was after 45 minutes as opposed to the normal 35 that we play. We played Ross Bremner in goals, who put in a very credible performance for his first game. At right-back was the stalwart Fraz, centre half we had Ally and Davie G, and left back Ross A. In midfield we had Jamie Miller, Cammy and Colin, and up front we played Keith R, Alan and Stuart Holland. We had Alex, Jamie Wilson, Paul and Alasdair as subs and rotated them as required (thank god for rolling subs!). Goals were scored by Colin and Alan, and despite losing it in the second half I think we are beginning to find what really works for us."
- Lynne