Abertay, It's A Real Education

Their own slogan forewarned them of what was to come, yet Abertay still was torn apart in an exhibition half of football by Edinburgh at the fortress that is Peffermill. Forget Turf Moor, Peffermill has become an amphitheatre, a place where challengers are forced to come only too be put to the sword, the only difference being that Burgh’s opponents get to walk away with the only injuries being a lack of pride and a sore head from an irate manager, Wednesday was no different.
Edinburgh opened the scoring early on, with a flowing piece of football which saw the hosts switch the play from the left wing, across the back four and onto Sime on the right, unopposed. Sime laid the ball back to Dave Meehan who swung in a superb cross, which flicked off the head of Erskine and onto the foot of O’Neill who calmly volleyed the ball into the bottom right-hand corner. A simply switch of the play was all that was needed for the home side to open up a clearly suspect defence and O’Neill’s shot was one from the top bag, a finished which matched his superb hold-up play throughout the match.
The second goal was not long in the following. Ramsay, who I believe had a man of the match performance, took a long throw in from the left hand side of the pitch. Maxwell headed the ball on to Senior, who let the ball drift across his body, leaving the left back to connect with the ball on a right footed half volley, sending the ball flying into the net off the underside of the crossbar. Jubilation, and maybe a tad of amazement, flooded the pitch as Senior rattled in his second of the season.
Next to find himself in on the action was Jamie Sime, a man who has found himself on the scoresheet more often than not this campaign. Sime has made the transition to right midfield well but will find few better opportunities to score than Abertay gave him. Ramsay hit an inswinging corner from the right, which went straight through the crowded penalty area to Sime at the far post. “The Machine” chested the ball down and had a cup of tea, before any opponent opposed him, but by then it was too late as the winger had already smashed the ball into the vacant net, putting Burgh 3-0 up.
Yet, the home side were eager for more, sensing the opportunity to score heavily against a team verging on the edge of imploding from within, which they duly obliged. From the centre, Abertay played the ball back too their left back, who decided to dwell on the ball, allowing Ramsay to charge down his poor attempt at a clearance. Ramsay ran onto his own block before placing a precise cross onto the head of Erskine, giving him the simplest of tasks to get himself on the scoresheet, scoring Edinburgh’s second goal in 30 seconds of play.
If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, more was to come. Abertay was at this point clearly disheartened so it fell upon their captain to inspire some confidence back into his side and the centre-half responded to his duty with emphatic enthusiasm. The only problem was that he scored in the wrong net… A quick cross into the box had whizzed off the crisp surface, straight onto the foot of the centre-back, guiding the ball helplessly passed his keeper to take the score to 5-0.
Erskine then obliged once more, adding insult to injury, scoring his 4th goal of the season and Edinburgh’s 6th before half-time. The game ended 6-0, but it was truly done and dusted by halftime. The only thing left to do in the second half had been too defend a clean sheet. Velez, Petrie and new signing Scott MacFarlane came on for cameo appearances and keeper Tom Agnew spent the day counting how many insects were in a metre square of football pitch. Now that’s a real Edinburgh education.