By Lewis Michie
Football continues to come from all angles at the moment, with many sides playing two games a week, every week, since the beginning of the campaign. It has been mixed fortunes for many of the sides in the Mearns thus far and that was very much the same the past week – with some local sides on one end of a heavy scoreline, and others on the better side of a high goal total.
St Laurence came into the Premier Division last season with an aim of staying in their new league – they even took a season out of the Scottish Amateur Cup to try and ensure it – and boss David Easton managed to do that. This season the Saints have had to deal with a few departures, but in spite of this they’ve started in decent fashion – sitting fifth with seven points from four games.
NE98 caught up with Easton to see how he’s felt about his sides start to the new campaign, he said:
Considering the amount of players we have had leave the club and that are out injured at the moment, I am very happy with our start.”
The opening 3 games were a struggle to get a team on the park so to get 4 points from those games, we realistically have to be happy with that. We then showed against Old Aberdonians, with a nearly full squad, what we can be capable of.”
This weekend did offer a bit of frustration for Easton and St Laurence, some heavy rain on the Friday made one particular area of their pitch unplayable, meaning the scheduled game against Woodside was called off.
Easton said:
Very frustrating, especially coming off the back of 2 good wins. A corner of our pitch has very poor drainage, making the pitch unplayable after the rain on Friday morning.”
Easton of course made sure Wednesday’s match with Cove Thistle would good ahead.
We have had enough time to book our local astro turf for our game V Cove Thistle on Wednesday night so we should be good to go again.”
That would end up being a good decision for the Saints, who’d beat Cove 3-2 on Wednesday, Connor Sandeman, Neil Arthur and Darren Forbes grabbing the goals.
The club’s Facebook page said:
Despite the weather, we had another great turnout in support for the team. We really appreciate the recent upturn in support and hope it continues.”
Finally, we knew last season that Easton set his side the aim of remaining in the division, but what about this season? Easton told NE98:
The Premier League is a tough division to stay in and do well in due to the competitiveness that’s required every weekend. So staying in the league for the second season would be another good achievement.”
Although, we are very determined to build on last season’s finish. We showed a lack of consistency, so its important to try and get that right. We have re-entered the Scottish Cup, having previously gotten to the last 32 and 64 we would like to build on that.”
The club enjoyed great cup success 2 seasons ago, we would love to win some more silverware. We finished 8th last season, to finish in the top half and challenge the usual top teams is something we are capable of if we can stay consistent.”
Elsewhere in the Premier Division there wasn’t much to shout about for the Mearns based sides. Firstly, Cowie Thistle had the weekend off and Bervie maybe wished they had too, with their good start to the season coming to a grinding halt against MS United.
Bervie were dispatched at home 4-0, with the club’s Facebook reacting:
A lesson for the boys that you need to give 100% effort in every game this season no matter who the opponent are.”
Things wouldn’t get much better for Caley on Wednesday where they were beaten by Woodside 4-2, although the Inverbervie said have enjoyed a decent start to the campaign and Woodside were bound to be a difficult opponent considering they won the division last season.
Cowie Thistle we back in action on Wednesday, and defeated 5-3 at home by Newtonhill.
Dropping down a division and it was not so great for the Mearns sides in either the north or east.
In Division One North it was a 7-1 loss for Stonehaven Athletic away from home against Torphins. Unfortunately we have not had a report as to the goal scorer for Athletic, although the club did comment the following on their Facebook:
Very poor performance from the boys yesterday. We will need to forget about this quickly and move on.”
Things were at least less messy, but just as useful in terms of points gained for Ac Mill Inn in the Division One East. They were beaten 2-1 at home by Kincorth. ‘Hippy’ grabbing the goal for Mill Inn.
They said on Facebook:
Mill Inn were unable to respond to the second goal, however, it wasnt for lack of effort and the team produced a strong performance against a much improved team which will likely be pushing for Premier League promotion this season.”
Things got much better for both sides in mid-week however, with wins for both Stonehaven Athletic and Ac Mill Inn.
It was a 4-3 victory for Athletic over JS XI and a 3-0 thrashing of Cammachmore for Mill Inn.
It has been a fantastic start for Johnshaven Athletic in the Montrose & District Welfare League. They opened the season on Sunday with a 1-0 away win over Legion FC, Scott Beedie grabbing the only goal of the game.
They said on Facebook:
Johnshaven happy to kick off the season with a win, limiting Legion to very few chances other than long throws and set pieces.”
It went from good to great for Johner on Tuesday as they made it six points from six, beating Laurencekirk FC 11-1.
Goals galore in this one, Scott Beedie continued excellent form to score a hat-trick, Stuart Hamilton scored twice, as did Andrew Beel. Derek Anderson, Ryan Gammie and Scott Nicholson also scoring.
The club’s Facebook page said:
The lads will have tougher tests this season but it was a much improved Laurencekirk side to the one that we defeated 18-0 just a week earlier.”
It was a tough weekend for Stonehaven Ladies who were defeated 9-0 by Aberdeen Women in the SWFL Division One North. A difficult result to take, but not one to be ashamed of seeing as Aberdeen now have a clear lead at the top of the division, are far more heavily funded and had just come off the back of a cup win against a side two tiers higher.
Last but certainly not least to the Juniors. No league action for Martyn Rollo’s Stonehaven this weekend, instead they travelled up to Aviemore to face Spey Valley United in the first round of the North Regional Cup.
A 3-0 win with goals from Calum Watson, Craig Mackie and Martin Shand was enough to ease the Hive through to the next round.
They said via Social Media:
Stoney move into the next round of the cup after a comfortable win up in Aviemore.”
NE98 