Tizers see off north works rivals

THE FINAL of the DITT cup last Saturday saw Wrultizers continue their lust for silver as they beat new boys Mossbank 2-0 to win the first trophy of the season. The game was a fairly close affair, played in good weather conditions on an excellent Seafield pitch.

This weekend sees fourth-placed Wrultizers take on second-placed Chernobyl as both strive to keep pressure on leaders CF Cosmos. Titans will be looking to improve their league form when they take on the top team, while old foes Malakoff and Banks clash and Mossbank take on Wast Linga Ramblers.

Midweek sees the preliminary round of the Association Cup with Wrultizers/Malakoff and Titans/Mossbank vying for a place in the quarter-finals.

DITT Cup Final
Wrultizers 2, Mossbank 0

Wrultizers came out with a plan like Tizer Kevin Howourt – simple, but unlike Kevin this plan could work. However, the plan to physically dominate their smaller opponents early doors was curtailed by referee Robbie Leask whose yellow card to Wrultizer Alan Smith in the opening minute showed he wouldn’t tolerate any rough stuff.

With the Wrultizers switching to plan B Mossbank took control with Connel Richardson pulling the strings in midfield. Dominate possession as they did however it was the Wrultizers who threatened first when Andrew Boyd burst clear on the left to hit the byline and crossed to Danny Carter who shot narrowly wide.

It didn’t take long for the match to settle into a pattern. Mossbank with striker John Hutchison adopting a free role in midfield, had the most possession but found it hard to break down a resilient and well-disciplined Wrultizers back four. This suited the Wrultizers traditional counter attacking game with David McShane and Danny Carter lookÂing more and more dangerous as the game progressed.

With half an hour gone the searing pace of Danny Carter left him through on goal with Mossbank having keeper Ben Fulton to thank for keeping the scores level as he acrobatically tipped a curled effort over the bar. However, with a noticeable height advantage Wrultizers were always going to be a threat from set pieces and when the resulting corner was only half cleared Niall O’Rourke sprung like a cobra to spectacularly volley home the opener.

Mossbank were stung again 10 minutes later when Fulton raced out to beat McShane to a through ball only to see his clearance hit the Wrultizers striker’s ample rear, leaving McShane to stroke the ball into the empty net and sending the Wrultizers ultras into ecstasy.

Mossbank finished the first half on top with first Hutchison and then Stephen McLaren both firing narrowly wide.

As the second half developed Mossbank pushed more and more men forward in a bid to get back into the game. Unfortunately this left their defence with more holes than Dale golf course as Carter twice, Duane Nicolson and McShane were all denied by Fulton.

The pivotal spell in the second half came 15 minutes from the end. Darren Coutts came inches from handing Mossbank a lifeline when he rattled the crossbar with a long range effort before Tizers substitute Chris Polson was released by Nicolson. Ciaran Christie’s attempt at a last gasp tackle brought Polson down (eventually) and referee Leask had no option but to send Christie off.

The sending off killed off Mossbank’s already faltering hopes of getting back into the match and the Tizers closed the game to clinch their second consecutive trophy.

Best on the day for Mossbank were Trevor Tulloch, Hutchison and the very impressive Richardson. For the Wrultizers the rock solid back four excelled as well as the midfield duo of O’Rourke and Smith.