Fort William FC

Reserve Team Match Reports

Tain Thistle 1 v 0 Fort William (Res)

Fort Williams first fixture of 2010 ended in a narrow defeat at Tain on Saturday. In a scrappy game, the only goal was scored from the penalty spot in the second half, a well taken strike by Russell Lawrie. Both teams were evenly matched and in a poor first half, few chances were created. The Fort's best chance fell to MacLellan who rounded keeper, but found his final shot was cleared off the line by a Tain defender. With 10 minutes gone in the second half, Tain were awarded what looked like a soft penalty, Lawrie netted comfortably from the spot. Two minutes later, Sean MacDonald received a yellow card following a  reckless tackle; Tain's goalkeeper  joined him in the book for protesting to the referee. The game had very few other highlights, with the best chance of the second half falling to the Fort’s McPhee whose shot was cleared off the line by a Tain defender. The main positive for the Fort'smanager was the performance of goalkeeper Garry McLeod who comanded his area and dealt comfortably with everything Tain tested him with.

Forts man of the match; Goalkeeper Garry Mcleod.

Fort William starting line up; G Mcleod, MacCormack, S Lawrie, J. MacDonald,A Love, D MacNeill, S Lopez, L Corbett, G McPhee,S MacDonald, I McLellan

Sub;I Dunleavy

Match reporter Andy Calderwood

A disappointing first half from Fort William left them with a mountain to climb as they ended the half 4 goals down. 4 goals in 25 minutes from a more than decent Golspie side ended the game as a contest.
The nearest the Fort got to replying was a lob from Glen just before half time which narrowly sailed over the bar.

The second half was a much more exciting event, and in 47 minutes an own goal put the score at 4-1. Two minutes later a wonderful cross from Sweeney fell to Iain McLellan who lobbed the keeper to give Fort reward for a spirited start.

Fort held their own and competed well until 65 minutes when a fumble from keeper Smith made the scores 5-2 and in 80 minutes the scoring was complete when Golspie’s Alex Bone completed his hat trick with a penalty to make the final score 6-2 to Golspie.

Golspie manager nominated Callum McCormack as Forts man of the match.

Smith, Foggo, Lawrie, D MacLellan, Love, Forbes, McPhee, Corbett, I McLellan, Sweeney, McCormack, Glen, Bushnak

Thurso 4 V 1 Fort William Reserves

Fort suffered defeat after their far flung visit to Thurso on Saturday.
The scoreline however, didn’t reflect the performance of the Fort team who turned in an excellent display.
The away side dominated the first half, and created 3 good chances which they failed to convert. Ian McLellan in particular, causing the Thurso defence problems.
Their pressure was rewarded in 30 minutes when Sean MacDonald gave Fort the lead with a delightful chip from 25 years which left the keeper stranded.
Unfortunately, the lead only lasted 9 minutes as Sinclair slid home an equaliser.
The second half continued in the same vain with Fort being in control.
2 free kicks from MacDonald and a long range drive from Forbes made the keeper work to keep the scores level.
The 2nd half deadlock was finally broken after 70 minutes when Nicol scored after a corner wasn’t properly cleared by the Fort defence.
5 minutes later came the turning point of the match when Fort's MacDonald received a straight red card for a 2 footed tackle on a Thurso opponent.
Thurso then swamped the midfield and the rest of the match was virtually one way traffic, with Thurso confirming their superiority with 2 goals by  Bremner and McLean in the last 5 minutes to finish the game at a flattering 4-1 scoreline.

Fort team; Ryan Hunter, Ian Foggo, Alan Love, Daniel McLellan, Scott Lawrie, Sean MacDonald, Declan McNeill, Lewis Corbett, David Forbes, John Sweeney, Ian McLellan.

Subs Calum McCormack, Craig McCormack, Ian Wright (all played)…replaced Corbett, Forbes, Ian McLellan

Balintore 4 V 2 Fort William Reserves

Fort William Reserves played their first league fixture on August 22nd away to Balintore. The Fort started the game brightly and opened the scoring through Roddy Macphee which was quickly followed by a second, scored by Martin Glen. At this point in the match it looked like the Fort would go on to record a memorable victory in their first competative start, however shortly before half time Balintore started to knock the ball about well and scored a deserved goal with about 5 minutes remaining of the half. Balintore continued to apply pressure right up to the end of the first period. Into the second half and Balintore were on the offensive and scored a further three goals in an eight minutes spell between the 64th minute and 72nd minute. The Fort did have a couple of chances to score late in the game but unfortunately these were not taken. The Balintore managers choice of Fort William's man of the match, was Ian MacLellan.

Muir of Ord 2 v 0 Fort William FC (Res)

Fort travelled to Muir of Ord last Saturday and turned in a very credible performance, and can consider themselves unfortunate to have taken nothing from the match. In the first half there was very little between the teams with few chances being created. Most noteworthy incidents included a fine stop from Fort keeper Smith when he had to be alert to stop a powerful shot. At the other end, Ian MacLellan found himself faced with an onrushing keeper outside of his box. The Fort striker attempted to lob him and initially it looked like the keeper had handled outside his area, but referee confirmed the ball had struck him in the face instead and a drop ball was given after treatment to the Muir of Ord keeper.

The second half was only 5 minutes old when the home side opened the scoring. A fine strike from 10 yards by Michael Turner left keeper Smith helpless. 10 minutes later the title challengers doubled their lead after a long ball caught out the home defence and Martin Callum was first to react slotting the ball past the Fort keeper. Fort tried to get back into the game, a long range drive from Shields being their best effort, but the home sides defence remained resolute. Overall it was a game Fort weren’t expected to win, but they turned in their best performance of the season and there were many encouraging signs for the future.

Muir of Ord manager nominated Simon Shields as Forts man of the match.

Fort William team; Smith, McCormack, Lawrie, D MacLennan, Foggo, Shields, McPhee, Corbett, I MacLellan, L MacDonald, MacNeill

Subs – Glen, Finnis – replaced MacDonald and MacNeill

Reporter Andy Calderwood 

 Golspie Sutherland 6 v 2 Fort William (Res)