08/08/99 Parscelona 5 Kilmarnock 1

August 8th, 1999
Parscelona 5 Kilmarnock 1
Dalgety Bay Leisure Centre

PARSCELONA SQUAD :

Initial Subs (rolling substitutions were employed):
S. Holland
N. Holland
J. Miller #1
J. Miller #2

Scorers for Parscelona:
Grant Cotter (4)
Colin McKean

The weather was dull, but remained dry, and warm despite the wind blowing through the pitch. The game got off to an early start as with only a couple of minutes gone Killie exposed the weaknesses in Parscelona's defending and went one goal up.

Parscelona struggled playing into the wind, and remained one goal down for a long spell. Chances were wasted repeatedly before the Pars were able to claw one back. Kilmarnock lost posession at the halfway line and when the ball was eventually picked up by Grant Cotter he made no mistake when one on one with the goalkeeper.

Having been exposed at the back previously, Parscelona changed tactics to a more careful formation which saw Chris Ozog move to a more central position and Alan Maxwell moved back to a wing-back role. The change to a three man central defence with two wingbacks paid off, as Parscelona tightened up at the back and broke down Killie's attacks with more frequency.

In an attempt to beat this system, Killie brought everyone forward when they won a corner just before half time. The bold move backfired on them however when the ball was headed clear by Johnnie MacDougall and once again picked up by Grant Cotter. In similar circumstances to his first goal, Grant buried it to put Parscelona 2-1 ahead going into the break.

Chris Ozog was forced off at half time due to picking up a leg injury and was replaced by Stuart Holland. Playing with the wind, Parscelona seemed to have more of the play than they had managed in the first half, and as time went on the two wingbacks were given much more chance to go forward. Parscelona threatened to run riot with the wind at their backs but some resolute defending by Killie, a couple of fantastic saves by their keeper and some poor final balls by Parscelona meant that the deluge never materialised.

Killie's last good chance came when their rather young substitute skinned one Parscelona defender, but unfortunately for him put his shot straight at Ally Mooney.

Grant Cotter did however manage to add two more to his tally when again he found his way past the Killie defence. A Colin McKean shot squirmed under the unlucky Kilmarnock goalkeeper in the dying minutes to make the final score 5-1 but on chances created perhaps 10-5 would've been a better reflection of the game.

The game was played in reasonably good spirits with the exception of one particular Killie player who seemed to be missing the point slightly. And after it was all over, we were asked if we wanted to play a game against the Dalgety Bay staff footy team - they obviously know quality opposition when they see it.

(Thanks to Keith Rapley for recalling some of the details)