Brandanes hit a magnificent seven - Scottish Amateur Football Association

SIX goals in the space of not much more than half an hour saw the Brandanes comfortably through to the second round of the Scottish Amateur Cup after an excellent team performance on Saturday.

The Rothesay men made full use of home advantage - even if they were still nominally the away team, Paisley having been forced to switch the tie due to problems with their own venue - to banish the bad memories of the league defeat against Rhu Amateurs seven days before and secure a second round tie at home to Ayrshire side Girdle Toll United.

Sean Lawrence led the way with a double strike, while Neil Whitelaw, Darren Harper, Wes Pattison, Iain Livingstone and Malcolm Brown also got in on the act to leave the Danes' Paisley and District League opponents well and truly shell-shocked.

Both teams took a little while to adapt to a good, if somewhat soft, playing surface, with Paisley favouring the long-ball-through-the-middle approach and the Brandanes pushing the ball about on the ground wherever possible.

Liam Tait was the first man to get in a serious shot on goal with a 12th-minute effort which saw the Paisley keeper bring off a good stop; the visitors' number one was relieved to see a Livingstone shot whistle just over the bar as the Brandanes turned up the early heat.

Paisley looked dangerous coming forward in the opening stages of the match, but Gary McGregor in the back four had his troops well marshalled, and little was getting past them to trouble Greg Fisher in the home goal.

Rothesay soon began to get on top of their opponents, and with Pattison going down one wing and Stuart Brady down the other, Harper, Lawrence and Livingstone were all able to make inroads through the middle.

It seemed like only a matter of time before the hosts broke the deadlock, and the opening goal duly arrived on 28 minutes when Pattison was pulled down inside the box after weaving his way past two Paisley defenders and Whitelaw stepped up to do his usual competent job from the penalty spot.

The hosts were nearly caught out soon after the restart when a Paisley corner kick was headed against the Rothesay crossbar, but the let-off only spurred the Danes on and in 38 minutes a good ball from Livingstone found Harper, who turned and scored with a good strike from the edge of the box.

By now the Brandanes were totally dominating play, and the game was all but tied up three minutes later when Pattison, who had been causing no end of trouble to a hard-worked Paisley defence, went round two defenders before evading the keeper to put Rothesay three goals ahead.

The Danes were now playing some lovely passing football, and there was still time for a fourth before the break, Lawrence leaving a defender for dead before hammering in a fine shot which was net-bound all the way despite a slight deflection off a Paisley defender en route.

Fisher made way at the interval, James Dunn taking his place between the sticks for his first competitive appearance of the season, but the action remained at the other end of the park early in the second half, Livingstone's tempting corner on 47 minutes finding no takers inside a busy penalty area.

A lovely passing movement involving half the Rothesay team on 52 minutes saw Williamson play a good ball to Harper, who set up Whitelaw for a strike which just touched the upright as it flew past the keeper on the wrong side of the woodwork.

Brady, who had been running the Paisley defence ragged, was pulled down on the edge of the penalty area three minutes later and only a good save by the visiting keeper from the free kick prevented another Rothesay goal.

But the fifth strike of the day wasn't too long in coming, and a long throw out by Dunn on the hour mark saw the ball played up from Joe McMillan to Williamson, and a cracking through ball set up Lawrence for a shot which gave the Paisley keeper no chance for his second of the game.

By now a very dispirited Paisley team was visibly beginning to struggle, with only their number eight remaining up front in search of a consolation goal; though he put in some nice runs, there was no support from the midfield, which was a real shame for the best Paisley player on the park.

The visitors never stopped trying, but a strong Danes defence restricted them to the odd shot from long distance, with all their efforts on target comfortably dealt with by Dunn.

A good strike from Harper on 63 minutes was tipped over by the Paisley keeper for a corner, and Livingstone, whose delivery had been excellent all day, got his just reward when his high ball into the area wasn't held by the keeper and the ball dropped into the net.

McGregor came off with 20 minutes to play after receiving a knock to his back, Craig Guy slotting into the back four, but still the action was at the other end of the park, and Brady beat the Paisley keeper with a fine header on 73 minutes, only to see the crossbar deny him the goal he so richly deserved.

By now it was a case of 'damage limitation' for a tiring Paisley team, but the Danes kept up the pressure in the closing stages and manager Henry Tait brought on Brown in place of Pattison with ten minutes to go, Pattison leaving the field to the applause of both his team-mates and the watching home support.

Brady, Harper, Lawrence and in fact most of the outfield players all had attempts on goal in the final few minutes, but all were unsuccessful, and it looked as if the margin would stay at six - until the very last minute, when Brown rose head and shoulders above everyone around him to head home another good Livingstone corner and complete the scoring.

When the Brandanes get their game together, as they did on Saturday, they'll be a hard team for anyone else to beat in either league or cup action during the rest of their 2008-09 campaign, and hopes are sure to be high that the Rhu defeat will prove to be nothing more than a blip.

Saturday's referee was Jim Nicholas from the Lanarkshire AFA, who tried to let the game flow by making good use of the advantage rule and overall had a good 90 minutes.

Team: Fisher (Dunn), Williamson, J. McMillan, McGregor (Guy), L. Tait, Harper, N. Whitelaw, Livingstone, Lawrence, Pattison (Brown), Brady. Sub not used: Poole.

One notable absentee from Saturday's team was Stuart McKechnie, who sustained a broken collar bone in the defeat by Rhu and will be out of action for at least six weeks.

* The Brandanes are back on Caledonian League duty this Saturday, September 27, with an away fixture against Newton Mearns Rovers, kicking off at 2.30pm.

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