Goals Galore at Paties Road

Alba opened up their Championship adventure with a repeat of the 2014/2015 League Cup final with Uphall Station at Paties Road.

Uphall had the best of every encounter last season and were expected to be a tough prospect for us on the opening day.

We have however had the best pre-season since forming with the calibre of player in the squad at its highest ever and we took the game to a vastly changed Uphall side. We should have opened the scoring within the first couple of minutes with Stuart Ritchie and Mark Law both going close, however we didn't have to wait long for the breakthrough with Mark Law working hard in the channel before squaring the ball to the edge of the area for the onrushing JOE BOYLE to hammer the ball low into the corner. That seemed to settle us down and we played some lovely football without penetrating, until MICHAEL ROBERTSON picked up the ball wide right and drilled a ball towards the back post which deceived the keeper and nestled in the top corner.

We didn't have to wait long for another opportunity when 9 mins later we scored a terrifice team goal when we regained possession in our box and worked the ball through midfield with Boyle, Smith and Craig combining to create space, they played in Law who unselfishly laid off DANNY SMITH who stroked the ball home from 20 yrds. STUART RITCHIE soon added to the tally with a neat finish from 12 yrds, then MARK LAW also got on the score sheet with a fine finish after 35mins. This should have resulted in a comfortable afternoon and the opportunity to blood all the substitutes, however we took our foot off the pedal and paid the price when a hopeful ball over the top led to GARY DALGLEISH coming out and unfortunately taking the man out before the ball, the referee took his time but decided that a RED card was required. Kerr went in goals and his first job was to pick the ball out of the net.

HT Edinburgh United Alba 5 - 1 Uphall Station

A few choice words and some reinforcement that the game was still in the balance due to Uphall's numerical advantage

The second half kicked off and it was a master class in playing 10 v 11 as we stuck tour defensive duties with complete discipline and still had enough quality and intelligence to create clear cut chances, in fact outstanding pressing from Craig, Smith and Boyle resulted in a back pass which somehow the keeper managed to allow to run under his foot and an own goal was scored.
STUART RITCHIE notched his 2nd shortly afterwards when he intercepted a goalkeepers throw-out and slotted the ball home in the bottom corner.
We kept up the relentless pressure on the ball and again we reaped the rewards when good pressing from MARK LAW so him gain possession on the left hand side and he cut back inside and struck a shot from 20yrds which took a slight deflection to loop over the keeper for number 9 and for the strikers 2nd of the day.
Uphall Station to their credit kept trying to play football but were out of ideas until a piece of slack defending allowed them to gain a 2nd consolation.
FRAZER HENDERSON through he had made it the perfect 10 when he dived across goal from a Jack Crawford cross however the referee ruled it out for hand ball.

FT Edinburgh United Alba 9-2 Uphall Station

All in all a very satisfying day at the office and one that will fill the players with confidence, a couple of negative points are the 2 goals we conceded and Gary's sending off, but fortunately with the strength of the squad we have this wont prove to be an obstacle. We will face much harder challenges this season but it is nice to secure the first 3 points of the season.
We now move our focus to the trip to Meadowmill on Wednesday 19th to face North Berwick whom we have never played before, they suffered a 4-3 reverse to Lochend so it should be a great game.

Gaffer