Edinburgh Ladies FC v FC Kilmarnock Ladies - Premier League - Sunday 4th. November 2007

Edinburgh 1, Killie 1.

FC Kilmarnock Ladies travelled to St. Mark’s Park on Sunday to play third placed Edinburgh Ladies in what was going to be a tough match.

Killie started the match in unfamiliar style with their passing poor, allowing the home side to get a lot of possession. When Killie were playing the ball about, the final pass was either too heavy or unrealistic. Rachael Dorrans in goal for Killie against her former club made some good saves early on and commanded her box well. Killie had a shot well saved from Edinburgh Keeper Jo Hutchison when Claire McCombe fired one at her from 25 yards out and when Lindsay Bayne cut inside to shoot after a great run down the left hand side you expected a goal but it went just over the bar. From these two shots Killie began to gain a bit of confidence that was lacking in the first quarter of the match and should have scored when after some great work from Jo Cooper, Kirsty McLaughlin, Julie Smith and Tracey Burns passing and moving the ball well done the right hand side, a cross came in for Laura Cooper who took a touch and volleyed it from 6 yards out but was thwarted by the Edinburgh keeper who had shut her down after the Killie player took a touch.

At the other end Dianne Barry was proving to be a bit of a handful and with her blistering pace and skill making life difficult for the Killie defence, but thankfully on each occasion the defence stood firm. Claire Crosbie also was proving to be a problem at corners with almost every corner aimed in her direction, but again thankfully the aerial ability of Heggarty and Burns for Killie aloud the defence to clear each time. Then, when against the run of play on 37 Minutes, another corner played in from Kirsty McLaughlin found Toni Mason in the box to put Killie 1 nil up in the match. Edinburgh 0, Killie 1.

Lindsay Bayne again had a shot at goal, on target this time, but lacked conviction and was saved easily by the Edinburgh keeper. Kirsty McLaughlin tried her luck from distance too, but this time it was high, wide and not so handsome. Both managers changed formations 5 minutes before half time trying to get that wee bit extra from their team, but the sides went in at half with Killie a goal to the good.

Half Time: Edinburgh 0, Killie 1.

FC Kilmarnock Ladies manager Robert Connelly was delighted to get his team in the dressing room at half time with his team a goal up in the match, but was frustrated with the whole teams first half showing. Killie came out in the second half knowing that it was a must win game after dropping too many points in recent weeks. Edinburgh though had other ideas and were battling for every single ball and were working really hard to get back into the match. Killie were starting to play the ball about better, but then just when you think their play is improving the ball gets given away cheaply by some poor passing. Both sides on the day lacked the cutting edge up front and Edinburgh missed a host of chances second half, while Killie’s shooting like their passing was not up to much.

Killie tried to change the game, bringing on Chloe Quinn for Sharon Hughes and then making a double substitution bringing on Ainsley Kelly and Kirsty Munro for Lindzi Bayne and Laura Cooper. Throughout the second half Edinburgh had looked the hungrier side and got their reward when they grabbed the leveller. The Killie players and bench were livid as the goal appeared to be offside, but on reflection of how many chances Edinburgh failed to capitalise on drawing level was fair. Edinburgh 1, Killie 1.

Kirsty McLaughlin had a couple of efforts second half, but again failed to hit the target. The second half fizzled out with the only fireworks up in the sky, just a shame they could not light up the match, as it failed to live up to it’s pre match billing.

Final Score: Edinburgh Ladies FC 1 FC Kilmarnock Ladies 1.

Killie Team: Dorrans, Smith, Heggarty, Hughes (Quinn), Burns ©, McCombe, McLaughlin, Mason, Bayne (Munro), J.Cooper & L.Cooper (Kelly).
Subs not used: C.Ferguson, Forsyth, Ramsay (GK) & Docherty.

FC Kilmarnock Ladies Manager Robert Connelly said afterwards “ I am disappointed and frustrated with that performance. We came here today looking for the win, but looking for it and wanting it are different things I suppose. It’s not hard to put your finger on what went wrong today, our passing was extremely poor and our decision making at times was not good enough. We perhaps try to do the hard thing all the time, but until we make life easy for ourselves by playing the simple pass, asking for the ball and getting our shots off earlier we will continue to struggle to get results. I was also disappointed to lose the goal in the manner in which we did, as from where I was standing it was offside, but credit where credit is due Edinburgh worked hard today and got the point which was on reflection the correct result. It is back to basics for us though, as we have only picked up 2 points from the last 4 league games, so after all our hard work during pre season and at the start of the season we have to now accept that our targets will be difficult to achieve now and just concentrate on winning football matches starting next week at home to Vale of Clyde.”