Arniston Rangers 2 Thornton Hibs 1

In this Radio Forth Cup first round tie Arniston Rangers opened strongly, took command of midfield and put considerable pressure on the Thornton Hibs defence. Arniston continued to be more dangerous but the visitors were coming more into the game. In the thirty fourth minute, Stanton the Arniston keeper gave away a silly foul just outside the Rangers box, but the resulting free kick was easily cleared by the Arniston defence.

The last chance of the half came in the forty second minute when a good ball came to Owenson, but somehow he managed to kick the ball over the bar from four yards out with an empty goal at his mercy.

In the second half play swung from end to end, with both defences doing a good job by clearing their lines.

The deadlock was finally broken, when in the sixty fifth minute a loose ball was ushered back to the Thornton keeper, but McKay managed to get a foot in and put it past the luckless keeper to open the scoring.

In the seventy fifth minute, McKay of Arniston put in a fair tackle on Thomson, but the player did not think so and he retaliated by punching McKay on the face. Several players joined in the melee, resulting in three players being booked - the original culprit only being showed the yellow card.

In the seventy ninth minute Brown of Arniston increased their lead, when after a fine solo run he slotted the ball past Walker.

In the eighty fifth minute Thornton reduced the leeway when Penrose scored a fine goal, but Arniston easily held out to the final whistle.

Arniston Rangers: Stanton, Henderson, McDonald, Brown, Landells, Armstrong, McKay, Connery, Byrne, Malone, Owenson. Subs: Begbie, Short.

Thornton Hibs: Walker, Thomson, Laing, Mitchell, Green, Arnott, Gardiner, Martin, Penrose, Geddes, P. Taylor. Subs: J. Taylor, McWatt

Referee: Mr. Prentice, Edinburgh.

Ormiston Primrose 1 Arniston Rangers 2

Arniston Rangers won this Laidlaw 'A' Division match on the last Saturday of 1986 at Recreation Park, by virtue of a powerful first half performance that saw them deservedly take the break leading by 2 - 0.

Indeed, Ormiston might easily have been further in arrears had the Arniston strikers taken all their chances against a home defence looking still in festive mood.

Craig Lumsdaine was certainly in a generous mood when he gifted Arniston the opening goal in five minutes. Dallying too long on the ball, he was quickly dispossessed with Rangers setting up a fast counter-attack involving McKay and Malone, ending with Byrne having an easy tap-in goal to put Arniston early 1 - 0 up.

Ormiston's reply was swift but Hart's fierce shot was brilliantly tipped over by the fine Rangers keeper Martin Stanton.

Arniston's all-action start had taken pedestrian Ormiston by surprise, as the Primrose took a long time to settle. A long distance free kick by Jocky Miller next found the head of Carlyle, but the ball flew wide as it did next when Carlyle ballooned a chance set up by Lumsdaine.

But Arniston were in command still, as Jimmy Malone should have made it two when he went through in the twenty third minute, beating the offside trap only to fall over the ball when challenged by home keeper Robin Rae.

Five minutes later a miss-kick by Pat Glynn left McKay with a clear chance but Rae again saved Ormiston with a point-blank stop.

On the half-hour another opportunity to score fell to the Arniston attack, but in a scramble around Rae's goal McKay, Byrne and Cant all had efforts blocked.

The ex-Tranent player Bob Thayne was booked in the thirty fifth minute for a trip on David Anderson, but two minutes later Bob was a hero when he scored Arniston's second goal! He broke through the Ormiston defence and beat Rae to the ball before scoring a hard worked for but deserved goal.

Just before half time Mark Currie hit Ormiston's best chance of the half straight at Stanton.

Ormiston improved a lot after the interval, but they were still conceding possession too easily and trying the most difficult ways to score goals.

Arniston faded from the scene for long spells, but in Paul Rodger they had an outstanding centre half, while goalscorer Byrne ably defended well.

Nothing was coming off for Ormiston but Bob Thayne went off injured in fifty three minutes, substituted by Glen.

In fifty four minutes Ian Harvey substituted for Nick Gray for Ormiston - the first time Ian had played since Ormiston won the League Cup on October 11th.

Ian's first run saw him touch the ball inside to Carlyle who unforgivably ballooned the ball over the bar.

All the Ormiston pressure had to pay off, and Hart created the opening for Craig Lumsdaine to score from close range to make the last quarter of the game much more interesting.

It continued to be mostly one-way traffic towards Stanton's goals, but Arniston still looked dangerous on the break.

However, despite all the huffing and puffing from Ormiston, on the day, they played poorly by their own standards and the League Cup win seemed very far away last Saturday.

Arniston did enough in their workmanlike first half to clinch both points, and had the strength of character in the second half when their midfield faded with the departure of Thayne - to win through,

Ormiston lost their eighth match of the season in twenty three games played, but now they have conceded thirty six goals as well as scoring thirty six!

Ormiston might be glad to get the months of November and December behind them and must look forward to better things in 1987.

Ormiston Primrose: Rae, Jardine, Anderson, B. Glynn, P. Glynn, Carlyle, Currie, Miller, Gray, Hart, Lumsdaine. Subs: I. Harvey, D. McQueenie.

Arniston Rangers: Stanton, Begbie, Henderson, Thayne, Rodger, Owenson, McKay, Fairley, Cant, Byrne, Malone. Subs: McDonald, Glen.