Tolbooth Run Riot Vs BSFC

olbooth hosted BSFC in the Barclay Cook Cup at Hazelhead. The two sides met in the league 2 weeks ago, with BSFC 3-2 winners on the day after the game was spoiled by Scott Keith's underserved first half red card. Tolbooth reshuffled the pack, with Mearns coming back into the starting 11, while the returning Stratton and MacLeod had to settle for a place on the bench.

Tolbooth was out the blocks quickly with Shand and Sean Keith forcing the away goalkeeper into point blank saves. Mearns then almost broke the deadlock but was unlucky to see his header from a corner hit the post. The opener did arrive on 21 minutes, Mearns powerful strike from the edge of the box was parried by the goalkeeper and Sean Keith reacted fastest to place the ball into the roof of the net. 1-0. 5 minutes later, Tolbooth doubled their lead. Sean Keith turned provider for Mearns who finished superbly over the goalkeeper. The away side started to come back into the game and it needed a smart close range block from Chapman to keep the 2 goal lead. Score at half time 2-0.

BSFC started the second half on top, but the back 4 dealt well with the pressure. A chance to kill the game soon arrived when Mearns broke free, but his unselfish cut back to Shand inside the box was well blocked by the away defender. On 66 minutes, the impressive Simpson flighted a wonderful cross from the left that was met by Sean Keith with a simple headed finish from close range. A minute later, Simpson released Shand who showed great composure to slot the ball into the bottom corner one on one. On the 70th minute, Tolbooth put the game to bed. A cultured dink from Fuller over the away defence, Shand then rounded the goalkeeper and rolled the ball into the empty net. On 75 minutes it was 6-0, Murray's long throw found Shand who completed his hatrick after a deflected strike from 20 yards hit the top corner. 10 minutes from the end, MacLeod had a golden opportunity to get the 7th but somehow struck the bar from 2 yards out. BSFC applied pressure late on and it took a diving save from Chapman to keep the clean sheet intact. Final score 6-0 and we progress to the next round.