Granite City 2
Falkirk GHG 0
Falkirk put in a much improved performance against last season's runners
up, but as is the norm in Aberdeen, it wasn't quite enough to get points on
the board. Granite City had most of the early play, but apart from a couple
of cross balls, Robert Thomson was untroubled. Falkirk took control of the
rest of the half, and had chances to take a lead into the break. Michael Watson's
volley was easily saved by the home keeper after good work by James Moran
and Craig Gove, and Stafford Dickson came close with a shot from the edge
of the box. Falkirk did have the ball in the net from a corner, but it was
ruled out as Watson's initial shot cleared the backboards. Granite City upped
their game in the second half, and put pressure on the Falkirk defence without
creating any clear cut chances. A string of penalty corners were well defended
by the visitors, and Falkirk thought they had weathered the storm only to
lose a goal in controversial circumstances. A Granite City through ball appeared
to strike Dickson at waist height, but when the next pass also flew past Graham
Miller, the defence paused for a decision that never arrived. Granite City
converted the chance to take a fortunate lead, and left the visitors to unsuccessfully
remonstrate with the umpire. Granite City killed the game off 5 minutes later
with a well worked goal that ended with a shot from the top of the box into
Thomson's bottom left hand corner. Falkirk's last chance to score came in
the final minutes, but after good work from Miller, Watson sliced wide.
Carnegie III 4
Falkirk GHG II 2
After not the best of starts to this, the first league fixture of the new season,
Falkirk found themselves one goal down after a good shot from the edge of the
circle. Gregor Maxwell levelled when he calmly capitalised on a penalty flick
awarded when a defender kicked the ball off the line during a penalty corner
scoring opportunity. The Fife hosts went up the park soon after and scored to
again go in front, but Maxwell took a ball from Derek Morrison and sent a silky
reverse-stick flick into goal from the edge of the circle to level again. The
second period saw Falkirk penned in for a lot of the time, and sometimes giving
the ball away, such that the Fifers were able to put two more goals away to
claim their first league points.
Carnegie V 3
Falkirk GHG III 3
The 3rd XI faced a strong Carnegie side in their last friendly of the season.
With only five regulars available, Captain Scott McNeill was grateful to all
from the 4th XI who played in this strongly contested friendly game. The match
started well for Falkirk, when they took an early lead thanks to excellent play
from Ross Anderson. Anderson started the move himself in the middle of the park,
when he won a tackle in the midfield area. After running some distance Anderson
played a square ball to Danny Gibney. Gibney beat one defender before playing
it back to Anderson who had continued his run and was left with a simple finish
to an excellent move. At the other end Simon Tennant and Dougie Smith looked
strong and composed. Jamie Ballantine in goals made some excellent kicks as
Falkirk looked in control. Before long Anderson made it 2-0 with a sublime goal.
Gordon McCaig won the ball in the middle of the park and set Craig Callahan
of on a mazy run. After beating two defenders Callahan passed the ball to the
impressive Iain Forbes. Forbes played a lovely cross in which Ross Anderson
met first time with a brilliant finish, slotting home past the despairing keeper.
Carnegie always looked dangerous and pulled a goal back from a controversial
short corner before equalising from the penalty spot after Jamie Ballantine
and Iain Forbes had both made excellent saves on the line with their bodies.
Danny Gibney had a decent chance his shot was well saved by the home keeper.
Into the second half and the game became more robust with some hard challenges
and tempers began to flare. Amid the battles taking place all over the pitch,
Danny Gibney made it 3-2 when his ambitious touch deflected off a Carnegie defender
and past the despairing home keeper. The scoring wasn't finished when late on
Carnegie made it 3-3 from another short corner. In the end a draw was a fair
result as the 3rd XI keenly anticipates the start of the new season.
Grange VII 1
Falkirk GHG V 3
This was the last friendly outing for the fives before the new league season
starts for them this Saturday, and they enjoyed the visit to the Edinburgh Club's
base at Raeburn Place for what is unusual nowadays, a game on grass. Chris Taylor
had the first of several chances for him to score but it was left to Ross Drummond
to execute a clinical penalty corner award for the opener in the eighth minute.
A Taylor cross found Craig MacDonald who diagnosed a firm strike was needed
to inject more dominance of the game with the second goal. In the seventeenth
minute, Per Dullforce took a ball from David Humphreys to make it three. Grange
were not ready to give up and having found themselves short of two players,
Falkirk kindly loaned them Scott Usher, and Stuart McNeill, both on whom came
close to scoring at one point. Debutantes Alastair McKerrall and Matthew Morley
played well with McKerrall saving off the line. Youngsters Ross Dickson and
Andrew Morrison impressed the hosts with their level of skill, both of whom
found themselves at the end of scoring chances after Grange had pulled one back.
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