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The New SaintsMatch Report
MATCH REPORT
Stenhousemuir v The New Saints at Ochilview Park, Stenhousemuir on 7.9.19
Tunnocks Caramel Wafer Cup Second Round Att 335
Stenhousemuir 1 [Anderson 47] The New Saints 1 [Brobbel 86] Stenhousemuir won 3-1 on penalties
Penalty shoot out Stenhousemuir 3 [A,Munro, Watters, Hopkirk] The New Saints 1 [Marriott]
Stenhousemuir – Smith, O’Neil, McIlduff [Gibbons 88], McKernon, Marsh, Halleran, McLaughlin, Scullion[b54][Hopkirk 71] A.Munro, Anderson [Watters 81] and Gibson. Subs not used – Marley and Dykes
The New Saints – Harrison, Lewis [Spender 72], Harrington, Davies. Marriott, Brobbel, Redmond, Edwards[b61], Cieslewicz, Byrne[b44] [Whitehouse 59][b62]and Draper [Ebbe 67]. Subs not used – Dutton and Clark.
Referee – Damian McGraith Assistants – John McCrossan and Graeme McNellie Fourth Official – Alan Newlands
The Warriors had some respite from league action in this game against Welsh Premier League champions for the last eight years The New Saints.
The match allowed Colin McMenamin to rest several players who were carrying niggles like Mark McGuigan and Alan Cook and allowed Aidan McIlduff to ease back into the side after missing out in recent games through injury. With David Hopkirk on the bench and McGuigan not part of the match day squad it gave Kieran Anderson a chance which he took with both hands.
Despite their pedigree the visitors who had played in Champions League qualifying this season must have felt a touch of déjà vu after crashing out of the Challenge Cup for the second year running on penalties to a Scottish League Two club, Jamie McKernon was in the Queens Park and Stenhousemuir sides that put The New Saints out of the competition.
The Warriors had shown a fighting performance throughout the game and were rewarded for their efforts in the 47th minute when Kieran Anderson headed home his first senior goal of his career after a prolific time in the juniors. He had come close of a couple of occasions in the first half and was to pounce to head home after the Ryan Harrington could only help a Liam Scullion cross into the danger area.
The Saints must have been shaking their heads at this time as they should have been leading going into the interval when an Aeron Edwards volley was somehow saved by Graeme Smith one handed. They had other chances as well to open their account with the worst miss being when Greg Draper headed a Ryan Brobbel corner wide in the 14th minute from close range.
The visitors were reduced to ten men in the 73rd minute when Simon Spender pulled up with a hamstring pull within a minute of him becoming the third and final substitute to be used after he had been called upon by the manager Scott Ruscoe before he had done a proper warm up.
To their credit though the full time side continued to battle away and equalised with four minutes left when Ryan Grobbel ran across the 18 yard line before firing home. This was fair reward for the most dangerous striker for the Welsh side.
This meant that the game went to penalty kicks and Smith proved to be the hero saving from Billy Whitehouse, Adrian Cieslewicz and Dean Ebbe with only Chris Marriott scoring. Although Paul Harrison saved Willie Gibson’s attempt he was beaten by Andy Munro, Ryan Watters and David Hopkirk who hit the winning penalty. Maybe this quashed the belief of the TNS manager who believed that the Welsh side were a fitter and better technical team than the Warriors. Being full time they should of course they should be fitter but their penalties, though saved by Smith were not really up to the standard of the Stenhousemuir players.