Dyce Juniors FC v Nairn St. Ninian

The hoops slumped to a dismal defeat at home to the Nairn Saints, our first league loss this season. A combination of an awful first half from ourselves and Nairn playing exceptionally well made for the visitors leading 2-0 at the break, and in truth we didn’t look like scoring even when we had a lot more possession in the second period. For various reasons Steven Bartlet, Ryan Dick, Steve Fraser, Tom Hutch, Ian Leith and Sean Napier were all missing, however the players available are still capable of much, much better than what we saw.
 
The early stages saw the hoops having a decent amount of the ball with Ads laying the ball into the path of Cove Rangers teenager on loan Kyle Smith but his shot flew narrowly wide. The Saints grabbed the lead out of nothing in the 12th minute. Yeats looked to have a through ball under control but FONWEBAN managed to nick the ball away from him, get round Johnson and tap the ball into the empty net. A minute later it could have been two when Chisolm found space at the back post but Johnson saved his header well. Just three minutes later the keeper made an even better save when after a scramble the ball fell to Mason at the edge of the box and his shot looked to be looping in until Johnson back tracked and leapt to tip the ball over. In a rare Dyce attack Wallace let fly from 30 yards  but his effort was just too high. Nairn were still the more dangerous and doubled their lead in the 26th minute. A corner wasn’t cleared and MASON turned and slammed the ball high into the net from 7 yards. The remainder of the half saw less goalmouth action, Esslemont’s low shot easily being held by MacLean in the away goal just before the break being our only effort and the visitors went in deservedly ahead.
 
HT 0-2
 
Adam M came off the bench to replace Ads for the second period, and it was Saints again who came close when Walker put a low ball across which hit the base of the post. Just after the hour there were a few shouts for a penalty for an alleged handball in the Nairn box but Whistler Nicol wasn’t having it and Saints counter attacked with Chisholm blazing a shot over. At the other end Taylor put one wide from the edge of the box and Esslemont saw a back heel cleared off the line. Chisholm sent another effort over for Nairn with Taylor doing likewise with a volley for the hoops but we didn’t work MacLean enough at all and the Saints could not be grudged their win at all.