Montrose Roselea

NO DEFENCE OF THE ROSELEA AT WEST END. Roselea travelled to Forfar West End for their third League Cup Section tie away from home. The pitch looked immaculate, bringing memories flooding back of the glorious day in May when the Lea retained the DJ Laing Cup, beating Carnoustie in the final. Roselea were forced to make a few changes, travelling with a much-weakened pool. Scott Findlater joined Kevin Crawford and Chris Simpson on the injured list, Michael Ross was unavailable, James McKellar, Brian Forbes and Paul Masson were working offshore and Matt Miller was serving the last match of his three game suspension. The team lined up with John Wands in goal, a back four of Paul Ross, Hayden Smith, Chris Masson and Dean Milne, Graham Walger made his first start in midfield alongside David Craig, Paul Whyte and Martin Christie, Colin Page and Eric Watson were the front pairing for the third week in succession. Lee Walker, Kevin Smith, Luke Myers, Ross Mcleod and a trialist made up the bench. In only seven minutes disaster struck for Roselea when they found themselves a goal down. A long ball found its way in-between Chris Masson and John Wands and after some indecision the ball was headed into his own net by Masson. In 11 minutes there was further trouble for the Lea when West End increased their lead to 2-0. Another defensive error lead to Ronnie Valentine heading back for Brian Duell to make it 2-0. Brian Duell scored his second and Forfar West Ends third in 31 minutes. Again a long ball caused problems and his angled drive from the edge of the box left Wands with no chance wiyh his defence dabating a possible offside. Roselea then managed to get some hold of the game although there were no real chances at the end of long periods of possession. Half Time 3-0 In 51 minutes a long throw in was flicked on by Paul Whyte and his chum David Craig almost sneaked in at the back post to score, only being prevented by some excellent defensive play. Martin Christie then had a chance to score when he missed a header from six yards. Roselea then had a penalty claim turned down. In 63 minutes West End got their fourth and it had to be a Brian Duell hatrick. Another long ball was headed on and with the Roselea defence caught square Duell calmly slotted home his 3rd. Roselea then replaced Paul Ross and Graham Walger with Kevin Smith and Lee Walker, Walker making his debut for the club. Eric Watson missed Roselea best chance in 80 minutes. He skilfully dribbled his way around three defenders and with the goal at his mercy he shot high over with his right foot. Roselea’s day was complete in 85 minutes when John Wands miss timed a challenge for a long ball, leaving Ronnie Valentine the simplest of chances to complete the rout. Overall a very disappointing result and the standard of defending was very poor to say the least. Paul Whyte deserves credit for an excellent performance in midfield and Graham Walger did very well on what was his club debut. The only slight positive is that Roselea will now have 5 home games and two away games to finish the section, however if the defending does not improve the holders can say goodbye to the League Cup. Other results went as predicted in the other matches so valuable ground has been lost. Next weeks match: Home to Broughty Athletic, kick off 2.30pm, Broomfield Park. Other section results: North End 3 Coupar Angus1 Broughty 3 Kirrie Thistle 1