Uncle Phil was the only omission from our last outing, Kenny Wright was given the opportunity to start up front with Alex Burns. Steven Craig took up the left midfield position and Barry John Corr retained his place between the sticks.
The game was played for the most part at the pace of a pre season friendly with no aggression coming from any quarter. The experiment with Kenny Wright was not spectacularly successful though he did show early on with a few quick runs and a couple of half chance shots. Steven Craig also made the best of his right wing role and he reached the touchline once or twice to deliver dangerous cut backs.
The game was evenly balanced until the warning sign came just before the half hour when a Dempsey shot from some distance beat Corr and rattled his left hand post. Five minutes later and
The half time team talk did nothing to change our fortunes. Five minutes into the second spell saw Toastie run into the box to collect a tasty pass from Lasley. He had time to set up the cross but neither of the ‘Well players on the edge of the six yard box got near the ball.
We never looked like recovering. Fagan replaced the ineffective Dair with more than half an hour remaining. A few more poor crosses were to be our only contribution in an attacking sense but there was no moment when it looked like we would pull one back.
Derek Young was on hand to collect the third goal when a low, square ball across the eighteen yard line was missed by the ‘Well defence. Clarkson replaced Craig with ten minutes remaining.
The better team won and we can have no complaints. After the game a delighted Jimmy Calderwood praised his team for their ‘magnificent performance’.
Terry Butcher put his hands up when he made his appearance. “We didn’t play at all”, he said. “It was a bit of a doing. When we are poor we’re very poor!”. He remarked that it was quite remarkable that we were in the top six at all but that he was disappointed.