Saints earn deserved draw with Coldstream

St Andrews United faced a Coldstream side desperately fighting to avoid relegation from The First Division, with co-managers Garry Wright and Scott Meikle taking charge of the team for the first time. As such, the 100 spectators inside The Clayton Caravan Park Recreation Ground watched a good contest, though both sets of players took a while to find their feet. The opening 15 minutes were rather dull as a result but the game burst into life when Scott Reekie headed the ball into the path of Matthew Hutchison, who in turn blasted a shot into the Coldstream net. Unfortunately, referee Dickson ruled that Hutchison was offside so the score remained at 0-0 as Craig Heugh headed the next chance straight at United goalie Ben Swinton. Iain Gay then tested Swinton with a long-range effort but the action swung from end-to-end throughout the rest of the first half. Nik Rendall certainly did well to send some inviting crosses into the visitors’ box but his forwards failed to trouble Elliott Turnbull in goal, whilst Swinton made good saves from Stuart Briggs and Kieran Ainslie. Wright and Meikle subsequently changed goalkeepers at the interval with a view to providing the whole squad with time on the pitch but Kyle Moran did not have much to keep himself occupied during the second period. The young goalie did have to pick the ball out of his net in the 62nd minute when a header by Gay rebound off the post for Jonny Simpson to tap home but the Coldstream players spent the rest of the match defending at the foot of the slope. Scott Russell thus missed two good chances to score as he fired shots straight at Turnbull and Reekie lashed a free kick high over the bar. Reekie also headed high and wide from a corner in the 71st minute and the impressive Tom Milne watched Turnbull push his thunderous drive over the bar a few moments later. Heugh then missed the target by some distance with a volley at the other end but Saints kept pushing hard for an equaliser. Thankfully, that goal came in the 78th minute of the game when Scott Reekie found the net with a terrific header from a wonderfully taken corner by Ross Cunningham, which was no less than the home side deserved. Indeed, St Andrews United almost managed to grab a winner in the dying moments when Turnbull tipped Cunningham’s free kick just past the post after Russell was cynically fouled by Ainslie. However, both teams settled for a point apiece as Mr Dickson blew his whistle at full time.