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Despite his best efforts, Inverness keeper Ali Ballantyne can’t get back across his goal to deny Joe Anderson his 14th goal of the season.
“Yes it’s tedious and I’m sick of always being second best”, admitted Fermín when the news broke. “Hopefully they won’t mess up the play-off this time and we’ll get a new team in. It just enforces exactly why you have to win all of your games in this league”.
He continued, “We’ve got the foundation of a really good side in place here and if everyone plays to their potential, we will have a side capable of finally getting out of this division.
Turning to this afternoon’s match he said, “We got goals early on and that set the tone of the game. Three in each half is a good return and what is more pleasing is that they came from all areas of the park”.
He continued, “We played at a high intensity and our passing and build up play were both excellent”.
“Needless to say, our finishing wasn’t too bad either”, he added with a smile.
Aldo Pellone got the ball rolling in the sixth minute when a reverse pass caught the home defenders out leaving him free to drive the ball low into the net.
Five minutes later Adam Doyle swung over a free-kick that was headed on at the near post by Paul Hughes. Expecting him to go for goal took the home defence on the hop leaving Joe Anderson free to roll the ball into the net at the back post.
With only twenty-two minutes played Brook Street went three-up when Diego Misuraca pounced on a short backpass and fired high past Ali Ballantyne in the Inverness goal.
Ballantyne however saved his side from going further behind just after the half-hour mark when he got his fingertips to a powerful Aldo Pellone drive which looked netbound all the way.
Twelve minutes into the second half the Inverness keeper was left horribly exposed when his central defenders were posted missing, allowing Paul Hughes a free run through on goal before unleashing a real thunderbolt of a shot that gave the keeper no chance whatsoever.
A minute later Brook Street looked to have messed up a free kick routine when it landed at the edge of the box, but no-one had noticed Raúl Colen edging into position and he blasted the ball home to put Brook Street five-up and out of sight.
Raúl went close to adding a sixth goal in the sixty-fourth minute but his diving header was turned round the post by Ali Ballantyne at full stretch.
That sixth goal would come however Brook Street fans had to wait until a minute from time when a superb through ball played in Kari Kienberger who made no mistake.
And with that, some of the outstanding issues in the league were decided. Paisley Pirates 4-0 win over St Andrew Paisley ensured the title would remain in Paisley for a second season and that Brook Street Athletic will finish second. At the other end of the table Elgin were relegated after only a season in the fourth tier, however the final automatic relegation place along with the relegation play-off places are not quite yet decided.
Oboy shot are favourites to go down trailing Inverness by only three points but a vastly inferior goal difference, and with the sides meeting next weekend , it would take a 9-0 Oboy win to send Inverness down and Oboy into the play-offs. The other play-off place is a straight fight between Winbat wonderers and St Andrew Paisley. Winbat have the harder finish as they are at home to Badger Loyal while St Andrew Paisley are at home to Elgin. Time will tell.
Joe Anderson nets Brook Street’s opening goal the last time the sides met earlier in the season.
After a disasterous start to the campaign which saw them pick up only three points from their first three games, Brook Street’s unbeaten run now extends to nine games with seven victories on the spin and a win today will see a second place finish guaranteed.
Speaking from the team hotel this morning Fermín Romero said, “That bad start start in the league has cost us dearly, but ironically I think that it combined with the early Cup exits has improved us as a team.
“We are in a far better place now that we were at this point last season and we want to finish with as many points as possible and take this form into the new season”.
On today’s game he said, “Barring any disaster for them next weekend, Motorbreath should be good for a relegation play-off spot so it remains to be seen if they decide to just park the bus this afternoon and save themselves for the game next week”.
“Whatever they decide, we are ready for them. We have trained really well this week and everyone has a clean bill of health and with no suspensions it’s good to have the entire squad available”.
Kick-off at Millburn Stadium this afternoon is at 16:30.
Fermín Romero was less than impressed with his side’s second half showing this afternoon.
And it was certainly a disappointment for Athletic Coach Fermín Romero who was clearly frustrated by his side’s inability to mete out an even heavier defeat when he attended the post-match press conference.
“We were unstoppable in the first half and their goal only seemed to irritate my players into greater efforts”, said Fermín who quickly added. “It must have taken so much out of them that they needed a siesta in the second half”.
He continued, “We seemed to think that we had done enough in the first half and that our job was done. That was far from the case and it wasn’t until Inverness scored a second that we woke up again”.
“That’s nowhere near good enough. I want the first half performance in both halves, not just the first”, he added.
In a blistering start to the match, Brook Street were 2-0 up with only four minutes on the clock through Joe Anderson and Raúl Colen before Gilbert Conlon pulled a goal back for the visitors in the eighth minute.
Two Paul Hughes goals in the sixteenth and twentieth minutes had Brook Street 4-1 to the good before Charlie Benham rifled home the fifth goal.
Goalmouth action was at a premium after the break but Brook Street were awarded a penalty in the seventieth minute. With regular penalty taker Adam Doyle watching on from the stands, Alex Marker stepped into the breach and was perhaps too confident as he fired the kick high, wide and not so handsome.
With seven minutes to go, the visitors pulled a goal back when Gilbert Conlon grabbed his second goal of the game.
This finally kicked the game back into life with play racing from end to end, however it would be Brook Street who would find the net again when with three minutes to go, Kari Kienberger fired home.
Elsewhere, Badger Loyal continued their good start to the season with a 5-0 win at Oboy shot, Winbat defeated Elgin at home by the same score and Paisley Pirates won 3-2 at St Andrew.
It had been hoped that Adam Doyle would have recovered in time for tomorrow, but he has not made it and will have to watch on from the stands.
Coach Fermín Romero had the players in early yesterday to go through Wednesday’s match footage and identify what went wrong.
“A full and frank discussion followed and cleared the air ahead of our regular Thursday training, and it certainly had the desired effect as we had a really positive session”, Fermín said.
Speaking of the players’ eagerness to bounce back tomorrow he said, “They are desperate to do well tomorrow as they feel their performances have been way off the mark in the opening games. They’ve worked hard in training over the last couple of days and they’re good to go tomorrow”.
He continued, “We knew Diego [Misuraca] would miss the game through injury, but we were hopeful that Adam [Doyle] might have made the game tomorrow. Unfortunately however that won’t be the case, but we have options though so it’s not too much of an issue for us”.
Kick-off for the first game of the season at the LJG tomorrow is at 1630.
With the series switching window closing at the weekend the Scottish HFA have released the league fixtures for the new season. As seems to be the norm now, Brook Street will kick off the new league campaign with an away game, facing last season’s title winners and bookmakers favourites for this season’s title, Paisley Pirates.
League newcomers Inverness Motorbreath visit the LJG on 17 February before we hit the road again the following week to face St Andrew Paisley.
“It’s not the best of starts for us, but there are seldom easy easy fixtures in this Division”, admitted Fermín Romero this morning. “This is an extremely tough league to get out of and it may be that we have to concentrate on bringing players through who are at a level to not only get out of this Division but also Division III”.
He continued, “It’s a bold move, but we know we need to rebuild to get out of this league. It therefore makes more sense to build a side who can win this league and at least challenge in the next tier”.
“Our younger players are now getting gametime and our aim is to see them reach their full potential, build their experience and see them form the backbone of our future line-up”, he added.
Asked if he had been loyal to some players for too long he replied, “I don’t think being loyal to players is the problem; we’ve had very good players but they just couldn’t get us over the line and with the side ageing we need to rebuild”.
“If anything, I’d say that we possibly haven’t rebuilt enough and more often. We got good money for the lads who have left this close season and that will be used when the time is right and for the right player. There are a number of others who could have also left, and maybe they will during the season, who knows? We have exciting younger players coming through, but we also need the old heads so it’s all about timing and getting the balance right”.
Brook Street’s new season kicks off at Powderhall in Edinburgh on Wednesday morning when they face fifth tier side Gorgie’s XI. Kari Kienberger sits out the first game of the league campaign as he serves the suspension picked up on the final day defeat against Pirates, but will be available for the Cup tie for which Fermín has the full squad is avaiable.
“We’ll mix things up and try things out but all that matters is that we get through to the next round”, said Fermín. The Football Club have never gone out of the Scottish Cup in the First Round and it’s certainly not going to happen on my watch”.
Maybe we’ll go strong to start with and experiment once we get a few goals ahead. That’s the plan anyway”, he concluded.
Kick-off on Wednesday is at 1030.
This is Brook Street 