Dryburgh Athletic 2012s vs Fairmuir Boys Club
2 - 2
24 August 2025 · DDYFA U/14 2012<br>Watson McInally Division
Home league match played on 24 August 2025.
Kicked off at 10:30 AM
2-2
vs Fairmuir Boys Club
Home league match
The new season in Tier 2 kicked off today with a visit to Graham Street to face our opponents Fairmuir Boys Club. Although the lads have developed plenty of self confidence from last season, we were interested to see how they would get on against a previously unplayed opposition.
Fairmuir, who narrowly missed out on promotion to Tier 1 last season is a challenging opening game for our team, but I asked the lads to relax and just play the way they did for the entire of last season.
First half the game started at a fast pace, end to end action and chances created for both teams. However our defence remained strong and Layton pulled off a couple of impressive saves. In the ninth minute Eze broke free through the centre of the pitch and finished superbly with a strong right foot strike, leaving their goalkeeper with no chance and giving us the lead. The game remained fairly even and Fairmuir equalised through a 20th minute penalty which Layton was very unlucky not to keep out.
Half time 1-1, the lads knew they had nothing to fear against higher tiered opposition and I asked them to keep going and try and find another goal.
Second half, Fairmuir started strongly with a series of through balls, putting pressure on our defence but we will up to the challenge of stopping them. However in the 50th minute they did manage to break the deadlock through a well taken goal from the left hand side of the box. I was curious to how the lads would react to this, full credit to them as this seemed to make them more determined and from then on in it was all Dryburgh.
Five or six good chances followed for us, but their goalkeeper, who had a superb game, kept out our lads with chances falling for Eze, Coden and JJ from a corner.
Lucus corners were causing mayhem for the Fairmuir defence and we were unlucky not to equalise.
With just seconds remaining Dryburgh were awarded a free kick around 30 yards from the Fairmuir goal. Lucus Syme stepped up, with his excellent left foot and fired the ball into the top corner of the net, to equalise. What a strike! Fairmuir kicked off and the referee brought the game to a close.
Nothing but praise for all the boys today, who showed excellent determination and worked hard right up until the final whistle.
Man of the match performances for Eze, who was relentless in his running up front today, and Lucus, who made a big difference coming on at half time, and of course, wrapping up a fine performance with a memorable goal.
Good start to our Tier 2 season, and on to the next game where we hope to take home the 3 points