Match Report

Scottish U/19 Youth Cup 3rd Round, Sunday 3rd February 2008

Whitehill Welfare 0 Rangers 11

Rangers Under 19’s progressed to a mouth watering Quarter Final tie away to
Hearts after an eleven goal demolition of East of Scotland League side Whitehill
Welfare.

The match was to have been played at Ferguson Park in Rosewell on 9th December
last year but heavy rain forced the match to be delayed for almost 2 months
owing to the winter break and a further two postponements on 20th and 27th
January 2008.

As the Midlothian venue was suffering badly due to the inclement weather the
decision was taken to have the match transferred to Murray Park in order to have
the fixture completed in time for the next round.

The loss of home advantage didn’t seem to bother the Rosewell side as they
contained a Rangers team missing star striker John Fleck, who was on first team
duty in the Senior Scottish Cup at Easter Road at the same time as the Youth
Scottish Cup tie, for the first 25 minutes of the match.

It was actually the ‘home’ side who were first to have the ball in the back of
the net in the 8th minute, but only after Mark Moncrieff was ruled offside.
Captain Andy Shinnie got the goal fest underway when Thomas Kindbendiksen found
the Internationalist inside the box and coolly slotted the ball past Barclay.
A minute later Kindbendiksen played through Efrem who unleashed his shot from 20
yards and gave Barclay no chance.

It only took another minute for the Light Blues to go further ahead after a
great run from Craig McShea saw his drive across the face of goal turned into
the net by Shaun Harrison, much to the dismay of the Whitehill defender who took
his frustration out on the post with a smashing right hook.

At this point the previously well organised Welfare defence were all at sea as
the Light Blue onslaught continued unabated with firstly McShea having his
effort cleared off the line before Kindbendiksen rattled the post.

The Norwegian midfielder was in sparkling form throughout the match and scored a
well deserved goal 3 minutes before the break when he dribbled through the
Welfare midfield and placed his shot from the edge of the box into the postage
stamp corner.

Half Time – Whitehill Welfare 0 Rangers 4

It only took 2 minutes of the second half for the ‘away’ side to go five up when
Isa Bagci picked up a slack pass, weaved his way into the box and slotted the
ball past the despairing Barclay.

On the 56th minute Ross Harvey got onto the score sheet when a corner was headed
onto the post and the big defender made no mistake with the rebound from only a
matter of inches.

Coach Billy Kirkwood decided to change the strike force on the 68th minute by
replacing Bagci and McShea with Little and Craig.

The change brought fresh impetus up front against a tiring Whitehill defence and
3 minutes after the substitutions Andy Little set up Chris Craig when his cut
back from the bye line found the striker in space and the diminutive hit man
finished with aplomb.

10 minutes later it was the turn of Cypriot Efrem to set up Craig following a
brilliant run through the line of claret shirts and again the striker made no
mistake with his finish.

Chris Craig was on fire as the ‘home’ defence just had no answer to his prowess
and the inevitable hat trick came on the 83rd minute when sub Michael Donald set
him up to finish with a powerful drive from 16 yards and put the Light Blues
nine goals to the good.

The ‘Gers substitutes were running amock up front and Donald got onto the
scoresheet 5 minutes from time after Barclay spilled Steven Stirling drive and
the youngster found himself with an easy tap in for the ‘Gers tenth.

Andy Little was intent on adding to the tally with 3 minutes remaining and went
on a solo run to the bye line before coming back inside and slotting the ball
home, despite being surrounded by claret shirts, to put Rangers 11-0 up.

Thomas Kindbendiksen tried to emulate the 12 goal achievement against
Fraserburgh in the previous round with the last kick of the ball but
unfortunately for the midfielder his shot struck the post.
     
The Teams;

Whitehill Welfare – Barclay, Arthur, Campbell, Harrison, McWilliams, Pusledzki,
Moncrieff, Gay (Dodd 45), Rennie (Turnbull 73), Young (McDermott 65), Moffat.
Subs not used – Jack, Valance

Rangers – Gallacher, McLachlan, Kinniburgh, Wislon, Harvey, Stirling,
Kindbendiksen, Shinnie, Bagci (Little 68), McShea (Craig 68), Efrem (Donald 82).
Subs not used – Adam, Park
 
Referee – Paul Reid



© Iain McKee, 3rd February 2008