KaisAYR Goals |
Drew Wallace
70 mins
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Ewan played a free-kick in from deep that was only half cleared. Warney tried an overhead kick from the edge of the box which found Drew arriving to send a right-footed volley into the corner of the net. |
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Preston North End ST (Preston North End) 0-1 KaisAYR (Ayr United)
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| Saturday, 28th April, 2012 |
UK Cup Only |
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Kaisayr booked their place in the semi-finals of the IFA Cup with a hard-fought victory over Preston North End Supporters Team thanks to Drew Wallace's second half volley.
The hosts had won the IFA Cup in each of the previous seasons, as well as going unbeaten all season prior to this game and had scored over one hundred goals in less than twenty games. Add in the fact that Kaisayr travelled with a bare bones squad missing regulars Scott Plain (working), James Fowler (holiday), Andrew Gamble, Steve Clark, Fraser Bryden, Stuart Bell, Graeme Morton (all injured), Dave Hainey (wedding) and Paul Roseblade, and the task looked nigh on impossible.
Travel issues ensued early in the morning when the hire car heading down from Glasgow was held up until 8am as Tocker's Maestro card was deemed unacceptable payment and everything seemed to be going wrong, but the boys managed to pick up some speed and get down in time to kick-off not much after 11am.
After the briefest of warm-ups the first half started quickly and Preston, with the wind at their backs, pressed high up the park but found themselves against a defence organised magnificently by Gareth Samson. It was a half of few chances, with Kaisayr registering a solitary long-range strike from Graeme Warnock which whistled over the cross-bar, while Preston almost opened the scoring when their top scorer, Chris McGrail, got away from the defence but found his low shot magnificently turned around the post by Kyle McKay.
The second half found Preston continuing to try and pin their visitors back, however Kaisayr did manage to get on the ball a bit more and find some space down the flanks.
The solitary goal arrived midway through the second half and was met with massive celebration. Ewan Graham's free-kick from deep was headed half-clear to the edge of the box under pressure from Warney. He got up acrobatically to attempt an overhead kick shot which proved to be a perfect cross for the run of Drew Wallace and the baldy wizard jumped and controlled a right-footed volley which was guided perfectly into the corner of the net.
The home side seemed unsure of how to react to this and promptly pushed their centre-half further forward. This gave a bit more room for the Kaisayr attackers and they found themselves with a couple of 3 on 2 opportunities to kill the game, but were unable to make the most of the chances.
Preston weren't finished though and had two great, late chances. First a long diagonal cross-field ball found the afore-mentioned centre-half free, but he guided his header narrowly wide of the post, before a slip allowed McGrail to run through on Kyle McKay. As the ball sat up, the 'keeper made himself big and put enough pressure on to force the league's top scorer into lifting the ball onto the roof of the net.
Kaisayr saw the last couple of minutes out in relative ease, with Warney and the Noble trio of Pete, Steve and Matt doing a good job of keeping the ball pinned in the corners.
The semi-final draw will be made in the coming week, with Fir Park Corner of Motherwell (who defeated another top English side, West Brom), Kingstonian and either Hull or Kidderminster lying in wait.
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