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Irn-Bru Scottish 3rd Division result |
Elgin City 6 |
East Stirling 0 |
Shallicker (pen) 33, 40, 52
Frizzel 60, 80
Nicolson 62 |
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 Darren Shallicker hit a hat-trick, Craig Frizzel bagged a brace and Mark Nicholson completed a six-nil rout of East Stirling today at Borough Briggs. The scoring started when Shire's Doyle was red-carded for a foul on Zander Sutherland inside the box. Shally stepped up from the spot and scored the first of his triple.
Being a City fan has always been full of ups and downs but the for the lucky 350 or so fans in the ground today, they were entertained to one of the best City performances of recent times. Normally a home tie against East Stirling would go down as home win of the coupons of most City fans but this time around Elgin were up against a side sitting second in the league after putting together a string of excellent results. With their good start and City’s bad start, it was a difficult game to call.
City started brightly forcing 2 early corners in the first 10 minutes, the latter of which saw Mark Smith put it over the bar from close in, after some good work between the ever impressive Darren Shallicker and the livewire Zander Sutherland. It was the latter player who tormented the East Stirling defence during the entire 90 minutes, keeping the crowd on their toes every time he picked up the ball. Despite missing some key players, the away side pushed forward at every opportunity but found an Elgin side who refused to give it up easily, Sutherland and Frizzel constantly chasing lost causes. The game itself changed just after the half hour when the former won the ball on the edge of the box and drove into it, before being caught on the edge of the 6 yard box. The last action of the game for the number 3 as he received his second yellow and was then off for an early bath. Shallicker stepped up and confidently placed the ball in the bottom left past the despairing dive of Hill. 6 minutes later it was 2 – 0 as after some good chasing and harrying by Frizzel, the ex-County player drove into the box, drew the keeper out and passed to Shallicker who had the simplest of tap ins from 6 yards out.
Second half and Elgin once again dominated. It only took them 7 minutes to wrap the game up against the ever dispirited away side, as after some good link ups between Frizzell, Nicolson and Shallicker, it was the latter who grabbed his hat trick and 5th league goal in 2 games, sidefooting the ball past Hill. 52 minutes gone and 3 – 0. Frizzell was having an excellent game and it was only fair that he ended up on the score sheet, first in the 60th minute with another cool finish from inside the box, and then again on 80 minutes when after his first shot from the edge of the box was well saved by Hill, the striker followed up and slotted the ball home for his 2nd and Elgin’s 6th. In between Mark Nicolson also got on the score sheet on 62 following up Shallicker’s initial shot to blast it past Hill.
Elgin had numerous other chances, Kaczans header from Sutherland free kick on 70 minutes being the best example but at the end of the day looking for any more would have been greedy. A very fine performance which deservedly had lifted City from the bottom of the table for the first time this season.
Elgin City: Ally Ridgers, Craig Campbell (s70), Mark Nicolson, David Hind, Hugh Dickson, Kenny Gilbert (s67), Mark Smith, Paul Kaczan, Darren Shallicker (s67), Zander Sutherland, Craig Frizzel. Subs: David Ross (s70), Allan Dempsie (s67), Martin Charlewsorth (s67), Anthony Tansley, Stevie Dunn.
East Stirling: Hill, Moffatt, Doyle, King (s62), Thywisson, Kelly, Donaldson, Struthers, Savage, Simpson (s52), Ure. Subs: Brownlie (s52), Upton (s62), Carr, Mcshane, Mitchell.
Referee: C. Charleston.
All photos courtesy of The Lours
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