The Nicolson Institute senior boys played Inverurie Academy in the Scottish Cup 1st round. They started the game brightly and were rewarded with an opening goal from Sam Macsween who showed great composure one on one with the goalkeeper. They soon doubled their lead with good work from Innes Morrison on the left playing in Gordon MacLennan who was taken down in the box and this left Calum 'Caley' Macleod to calmly stroke in the penalty. On 25 minutes Inverurie number 10 took a thumping strike from 30 yards which left Ally Macleod in goals helpless. Just before half-time a one two between Caley and Gordon sent the Nicolson boys into a 3-1 lead. Senior manager Mr Rowlands had little to complain about in his team talk praising the solidity of Calum 'Caz' Macphee and Ian Welsh at the back along with the high work rate of James ‘Titch’ Morrison and Domhnall Bardon in the centre of the park.The game turned in the second half with a noticeable drop in performance from the Nicolson boys along with a new found desire from the opposing team. The slick passing seemed to stop and when an excellent free-kick went in from Inverurie’s number 5 to make it 3-2 the Nicolson knew they were back in a real game. The Aberdeenshire side started to pile on the pressure in search of an equalizer and despite resolute defending from Jake Rivett, Innes Macdonald, Caz and Ian, they leveled the scoring with 5 minutes to go. The game then went into extra time.The first minutes of extra time mirrored The Nicolson's performance in the second as they sloppily gave the ball away on the right and Inverurie left winger unleashed another 30 yard goal. 4-3 to Inverurie. However, this goal seemed to re-ignite the enthusiasm the Nicolson boys displayed in the first half of the game. Andrew Macmillan played a beautiful 40 yard diagonal ball allowing Gordon the chance to make it 4-4 with a looping header. Caz came up from centre half to scramble the ball in to make it 5-4 but was cancelled out with a controversial (as in it was about 5 yards offside) Inverurie equalizer. Dramatically after this the Nicolson boys did have a great chance to win the game but it wasn't to be their day.An extremely exciting but agonizing Scottish cup tie came down to penalties and unfortunately the Nicolson Senior Boys continued their disappointing track record of penalties with a 4-3 loss in the shoot-out. Plenty positives can be taken from such a good performance but now they will have to concentrate their efforts on the North of Scotland Cup.
Report by Gordon Maclennan S5
