Report – Scottish Cup Final – Sunday 11^th June 2006 – Tolllcross, Glasgow

Man extra:  Gained: 6  + 1 penalty  Scored: 1  + 1 penalty  (17% success)
                 Conceded: 1  Goals lost: 1   (100%)

Scorers:     D Stewart 2, N Strachan 2, M Speed 2, S Carlile 1

Whilst it cannot be argued that this was a game we should have won, it certainly was the case that we could have won it. Based on strong defence throughout it was ultimately disappointing to draw back from 7-5 down mid way through the 3^rd  period and then lose to a solitary goal by Neilson Rutherford in the last period. This was very early in the last period and it was one of only a handful of occasions during the game that we allowed the opposition a clear outside shot from a central position without closing them down. Each time we failed to do it we lost a goal. There was still time to get further goals and it was disappointing that we could not sustain an attacking threat to do so. I think it fair to say that we should have had some exclusions from the centre forward area but that being said we did not drive with sufficient conviction to put Portobello under sufficient pressure.

A final significant factor was our inability to convert our extra man situations scoring only 1 from 6 and it has to be said that we did not look like a threat in this situation. This negated the excellent effort of restricting the opposition to only one extra man during the game.

Finishing on a positive note, whilst Portobello were definitely under strength this was a much improved performance from the last time we played them and we are moving in the right direction. It is important now that we learn from today as we take on Manchester next week.

Lastly beyond next week, national league looms in September. If players can work hard to get themselves in condition we can make an impact.