It was a chance to turn around Saturdays defeat really quickly but unfortunately experience proved the winner as a Street smart Stonehaven took home the 3 points.

The first half was lacking any real attempts on goal with most efforts either straight at the goalkeepers or flashing high or wide.

Stonehaven no. 17 was a threat at corners and twice rise highest but headed wide whilst Sutherland was alert to clear off the line in a rare goalmouth scramble.

Our best chances of the half fell to Turek and McColgan but the ball just wouldn’t sit right when chances seemed to appear. Paterson also found himself presented with a couple of chances but twice he flashed the ball across the face of goal without the required touch being applied.

HT AU 0 – 0 Stonehavem

Second half the boys had confidence but were dealt a sucker punch when a soft free kick was given 25 yards out in a central location to the visitors. The experienced Horne of Stonehaven saw a gap inside the post and executed a well struck shot which left the keeper no chance.

The lads done well to regroup as its typical in a young group to concede straight away after conceding as the panic sets in but credit to the lads for gettingbtheir foot back on the ball and trying to find a way back.

Addison then met a corner but couldn’t get enough on his connection to divert his effort goalwards and Turek smashed a speculativeong range effort just wide. Meanwhile at the other end, the defence was containing Stonehaven pretty well, limiting them to tame shots from outside the box.

However, the visitors grabbed an important second goal. Again Horne the creator. It seemed Sutherland had done enough to delay the attack and allow us to get back in numbers but as the striker cut in his shot across goal took not one but two deflections and rolled in what felt like slow motion just inside the front post.

Angus Paterson was then moved to centre forward and he made an impact almost immediately, getting to the byline on a couple of occasions and cutting back but no uni takers on the end of them.

We did pull one back however. A corner swung in was contested by McColgan with the visiting keeper and he put enough pressure on to force the keeper into fumbling the ball and the goalmouth scramble resulted in the ball just crossing the line before Stonehaven could clear with Sutherland generously admitting the ball was already over the line when he touched it so McColgan claims his first of the season.

Despite our best efforts we couldn’t find an equaliser and Stonehaven broke down play and ate up the minutes to close out the win. Two decent teams battling it out yet for some reason it always ends up feisty between the two teams!!

FT AU 1 – 2 Stonehaven

Another sore one to take but tonight’s team saw no outfielders that played being over the age of 20 against a vastly experienced side. These lads are very close to their first win.

Squad: Fraser McNaught, Nizam Abdulkarim, Joe Sutherland, Murray Addison, Brandon Donnelly, Angus Paterson (Mourad Ahmanache), Kieran Mooney, Luke Spence, Stuart Smith, Kurtis Turek, Owen McColgan; Unused: Dan Cotton, Alex Clark

AU Scorer: McColgan

AU MoM: Brandon Donnelly – Given that he’s not typically a RWB he put in another disciplined performance, ran his heart out and gave his usual bite in winning the ball back. Versatility is going to be a key word this year for all our players and Brandon has plenty of that.