Cup dream over as women go down to Raith Rovers

The Shetland women’s football team’s participation in the Unite Scottish Cup came to an end at the weekend when they went down 4-1 to Raith Rovers in the second round, two late goals putting an unfair complexion on the scoreline.

Raith Rovers 4, Shetland 1 Shetland went into the second-round game with division one team Raith Rovers not really knowing what to expect.

The game kicked off and Shetland’s first attack won them a corner which came to nothing. Raith’s first big attack saw Stacey Laurenson, Kirstan Robertson and Indyia Bradley acting quickly to keep the ball away.

With eight minutes gone Shetland took the lead when Josie Jamieson rounded the keeper and scored, a great start for the 3-4-3 formation.

In midfield Brenda Leask, Sarah Grogan, Toni Sidgwick and Zoe Irvine were working very hard but up front Lynda Flaws, Jessica Bradley and Jamieson were finding it hard to find space.

Raith equalised in the 20th minute and eight minutes later Shetland should have gone ahead again, but the keeper saved Jamie-son’s shot. In the 38th minute a throw-in from Sidgwick found Jamieson but she hurried her shot and it went wide.

Just before half time a Shetland move was broken up and from it Raith moved clear. Keeper Sarah Couper did well to block their first shot, but the rebound fell to a Raith attacker and she fired the ball home. The score at half time remained at 2-1 to Raith Rovers.

In the second half Raith were stronger and Shetland had to battle hard. In the 60th minute Jessica Bradley’s cross was met by Flaws but the keeper saved it well.

Shetland made a double sub-stitution with Leask and Laurenson coming off and Karen Jarvie and Karen MacKelvie coming on.

The rest of the match was a hard battle with many fierce tackles flying in from the Raith team. Flaws had another opportunity at goal but her touch let her down and the chance was gone.

Off came Grogan, on came Emma Gray and Shetland were pushing for another goal but sadly they were caught on the break. A through ball was headed back by Robertson to Sarah Couper which ended in another goal to Raith.

With the score at 3-1 and little time remaining a last-minute cross was taken by the wind and deceived Couper, making the full-time score 4-1 to Raith at the whistle. It was a result considered by the Shetland contingent to be rather unfair given the closeness of the match.

Coach Derek Bradley said: “Overall it was a battling per-formance from Shetland who never gave in. It was a big learning curve for them.

“The game was very physical and vocal which quite a few of our girls had not encountered before and a very poor refereeing per-formance did not help our girls.

“The final score flatters our opponents and the girls can leave the game bruised and battered but with their heads held high.”

Player of the match was Toni Sidgwick with Zoe Irvine, Indiya Bradley and Sarah Couper also being commended.

Bradley added that the team would like to thank Bolt’s and NorthLink for their continued support.