Published: Wednesday, 19th March, 2008 12:00
STALEMATE
By Frank Cassidy
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Arthurlie 2 Bellshill 2 By Robert Burns
After some more pressure, it looked as though the warning signs were not heeded by the ‘Lie defence and they were made to pay in the 17th minute.
Craig Baxter failed to clear and the ball fell to Felvus and he crossed for Boyd to pounce and fire the ball high into the net to give Bellshill a well deserved lead.
Arthurlie levelled the game three minutes later however after a cross from the right by John Johnston was missed by the Hill defence and Eddie Annand flicked his head at the ball as it flew into the net.
Some spectators felt Annand got a touch but the equaliser was credited to Johnston, but that was all forgotten.
Just a minute later Marc Murray tried his luck for Bellshill when he shot just wide from 30 yards after a corner, then Sean Winter picked up the ball inside his own half.
Showing great awareness he fired a fantastic cross-field ball to Alan McFadden, who controlled it with one touch, before bearing in on the Bellshill goal.
He cut inside the last defender before firing a shot with his weaker right foot that ex ‘Lie keeper Scott McNab held wel, followed by an attacking spell that saw Frank McKeown, Winter and Annand all miss chances.
Just on half time Bellshill took the lead for the second time — that man Boyd again picked up the ball on the right of midfield and ran at the heart of the Arthurlie defence.
As the Arthurlie players backed off him, he ran 20 yards before he letting fly with a left-foot shot that nestled in the bottom corner with James Evans rooted to the spot.
Craig Baxter didn’t appear for the second half, being replaced by Brian Wardle.followed by the sickening injury to Martin Hughes (see page 36) which saw him replaced by Stevie Aitken.
As Arthurlie went in search of the equaliser first Annand, then McKeown again, both went close with headers on 69 and 75 minutes, but in the 79th minute the leveller did eventually come — and was it worth the wait.
Sharp took the ball on the left before cutting inside, he changed it over to his right foot before firing in a fantastic effort to restore parity and, as the game went into injury time, both teams seemed to have settled for a point each.
Just on full time however, a corner from McDonald on the right found its way through to Boyd in the six yard box, and his point-blank header looked a certain goal but Evans somehow got hands to it with a wonderful reaction save and the game ended 2-2.
After the game,coach Alan Shields, said:“The Bellshill game was a hard one to take for varies reasons, the result being one, but to lose both Hughesy and Amo is a major blow for the club, and all connected to Arthurlie wish Martin a full recovery.
“Now we’ve got to stop gifting goals to the opposition, and being more clinical at the other end, its turning into a very tight league at the bottom end, with a number of teams battling it out.
“As next Saturdays game with Auchinleck is now off this gives a chance to work on things at training, and also allows guys like Ross Ballantyne the chance to recover from injury.
“The pressures on but we know what’s needed to stay in this league and don’t plan on failing, there’s some tasty fixtures coming up at Dunterlie and we look forward to them.”
Arthurlie — James Evans, Stephen Gallacher, Lee Sharp, Craig Baxter, Frank McKeown, Alan McFadden, John Johnston, Martin Hughes, Eddie Annand, Sean Winter, Craig Malcolm. Subs — Darren Lygate, Peter Shaw, Davie Williams, Stevie Aitken, Brian Wardle.
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