East of Scotland Cup
Wednesday 21st August 2024
Match report from Ross McGowan
Having come through their opening slate of Midlands League fixtures unscathed with three good wins, Lochee United’s attention turned to the East Of Scotland Cup this evening and a trip north to Strathmore Park to face a Forfar West End side winless so far and looking to jump-start their season with a cup upset.
Lochee looked to test the keeper early on with Callum Moore and Bailey Steel both trying shots from distance but West End did a good job of limiting Lochee’s opportunities in the opening 15 minutes.
However the men in blue soon began to work through their gears. First a ball through the inside left channel was cleverly dummied by Kerr Hay for Danny Cavanagh to run onto and sting the keeper’s palms. Then the roles were reversed with Cavanagh setting up Hay who fired just wide.
As Lochee began to calibrate their artillery the Hay & Cavanagh combination almost found a breakthrough as Hay battled to keep the ball in at the byeline and cut back for Cavanagh whose curling effort was expertly tipped over the bar.
From the resultant corner Callum Lamb could not believe he hadn’t scored when he did everything right heading powerfully downward only to be denied by a Gordon Banks-esque save from the West End keeper.
By now though you just felt that a goal had to come and it was a piece of magic from the in-form Callum Moore that broke the deadlock. Paterson took the direct approach of driving into the box and when his cutback was blocked Hay laid it back to the angle of the 18 yard box where Moore wrong-footed everyone whipping a shot in at the near post to put Lochee 1-0 up.
And a second goal soon followed with Moore in the thick of it again, showing first the persistence to charge down a lost cause at the byeline and then all the guile of the artful dodger to pick the defender’s pocket before rolling the ball across the face of goal to give Kerr Hay a back post tap-in for 2-0.
Dean Easton had to be alert at the end of the opening period to claw away a West End snap-shot from the edge of the box but the Bluebells made it in at half time 2-0 up after a dominant opening 45 of controlled high-tempo passing.
The second half saw Lochee come out eager to finish the game off and when the third goal came it was arguably the pick of the bunch as they turned on the style with a fabulous flowing move out from the back. Joyce got things moving down the right playing a deft one-two with Moore before Paterson returned a delicious backheel into Moore’s path. The ball was worked to the back post where Cavanagh laid it back to the edge of the box for Ewan Murray to supply the coup de grace with a well controlled side-footed finish to round off a wonderful move.
Bobby Linn and George Johnston were introduced off the bench and it didn’t take long for the substitutes to further torment the West End defence.
After good scrapping in the middle by Cavanagh Lochee got the ball out wide to Johnston who slipped the ball into the path of the onrushing Callum Lamb and the cutback gave Kerr Hay the easiest of finishes at the front post to put Lochee 4-0 up.
With tired legs now starting to show in the West End defence Lochee took to running directly at them and with ten minutes to go Kerr Hay won a penalty doing just that. Bobby Linn sent the keeper the wrong way to give the Bluebells a 5-0 lead.
Then moments later a clumsy barge on Linn yielded another spot kick. This time the keeper guessed correctly but there was too much power in Linn’s shot and the deficit was increased to six.
That was how it finished on a night when Lochee really showed their class at times. West End put in a monumental shift and were certainly not wanting for effort but they couldn’t live with this Lochee team who are a delight to watch when they get their passing football going.
There were plenty of performances worthy of praise this evening. Lochee seem to have hit upon the perfect combination at centre-half with Calvin Colquhoun’s dominant presence and Aaron Donald’s composure on the ball. Ewan Murray enjoyed probably his best performance at left-back since returning to the club in the summer. But once again the stand-out performer was Callum Moore who bossed the midfield and was the difference-maker for Lochee in the opening hour earning him the accolade of Man of the Match.
We return to league duty on Saturday with a home game against East Craigie.
As always – COME ON THE CHEE!!!
