‪#‎O35b‬ vs Queens Park FC 3-3

On a day when England’s opening one all draw with Russia felt like a defeat, the same was experienced by the Dunbar O35Bs, who were held to a three all draw against the high flying Queens Park O35As.

In a game dominated by Dunbar, we all came off the park disappointed not to have grabbed all three points and continue the winning run.

With just 13 players available, Dunbar again opted for a 4-5-1 formation, and it proved to be a savvy decision with plenty of possession and control in the opening quarter of the match.

That pressure paid off at 25 minutes when Graham White was pulled down 25 yards from goal. In form striker Marko Vuckovic was in no mood to let anyone else on the kick, and he showed why, curling home into the top right corner leaving the Queens Park keeper rooted to the spot.

But Queens Park proved why they are second in the ladder, getting themselves back into the game against the run of play. An innocuous looking venture forward saw a loose ball about 20 yards centre of Taggy’s goal. With everyone expecting the midfielder to take a touch, he decided to strike it first time and like Marko’s earlier goal, found the top right hand corner giving Taggy no chance.

Unperturbed by that setback, Dunbar continued to press and the industrious Simon Gaut put a delightful through ball into the path of Marko, who neatly finished across goal for his second of the game and 14th of the season. Although starved of possession, Queens Park mustered a couple of testing efforts on goal, with Taggy having to make two smart saves low to his left side to ensure it remained 2-1 at half time.

The second half took a very similar pattern with further chances for Dunbar falling to Niall Smith and Marko. But like the first half and again against the run of play, Queens Park pinched an equaliser to get back on level terms. A through ball down Dunbar’s right hand side got their striker behind the defenders and despite claims for offside they managed to get a low cross across goal for a simple tap in.

But again, Dunbar showed their resilience and continued to boss the game and deservedly went back in front with Gauty sliced the defence once again, this time finding White who finished first time to get Dunbar 3-2 up with around 20 minutes remaining.

Hoping to see the game out, the final 20 minutes didn’t go according to plan.

With Dunbar failing to clear the ball from a scrappy bit of play inside their 18 yard box, the ball eventually fell to a Queens Park player just inside the box, centre of the goal, and he shot through a crowd of players to get his team back on level terms.

Disappointingly, Dunbar found themselves having to do it all again and threatened to get back in front on several occasions. First, Smith intercepted a poor pass out from the Queens Park keeper, and bearing down on goal he unselfishly passed across goal for Boris to finish. But with Queens Park appealing the ref decided to call offside. Then Marko went close to his hat-trick, shooting wide after being put through by White.

But with 10 minutes remaining Dunbar were reduced to 10 men, when the ref first showed White a yellow card for asking for a free kick, and then promptly produced another yellow claiming White had used abusive language towards him.

Despite being one man down, Dunbar still looked comfortable but just couldn’t find the winning goal, and Queens Park almost nicked it at the death when a far post shot clipped the outside of Taggy’s post.

Overall, a disappointing result but a good benchmark on the team’s progression given Queens Park had only previously dropped three points.

Some strong performances across the park including the defensive trio of Chris Tangye, Kenny Keussen and Nathan Fryer

Next up, depending on their success in the State Cup, is the local derby with league leaders Dunbar O35As.

Goalscorers

Marko Vuckovic
Marko Vuckovic
Graham White
Match report by Graham White.