On a cold grey afternoon at Fernieside it was the Strollers who started the better against a team unbeaten in 10 games this season , having won 9 out of those ten. Good attacking play combined with solid defending saw the home team struggle to play any sort of fluent football. The earlier chances came for the visitors with Walker , Quinn and Murphy coming close in the opening 15 to 20 minutes. It looked as though all their earlier play was to be undone when Tynecastle broke through only to be denied both by good goalkeeping by Scott and strong tackling by the Strollers defending . More chances were to follow with efforts from Walker . Dwyer and Beattie for Strollers but their luck seemed to be out in front of goal. When the referee blew for half time Tynecastle could consider themselves lucky to be going in level as strollers had certainly dominated the first half.
Half - time Tynecastle 0 - 0 Strollers
The second half saw more of the same from the Strollers but with strong but fair tackling from both teams ensured that goals were going to be hard to come by. Indeed it was against the run of play that the home side went ahead after 65 mins after a rare lapse in Strollers defence . A good move down the left flank was finished with a low cross into the box and while Civil’s defence failed to clear the Tynecastle put the ball past the helpless keeper Scott. Surely all their efforts were not going to be in vain. No was the answer when 10 mins later after good work on the left by Walker the ball broke to Irvine who thundered a left foot drive past the Tynie keeper. No more than Civil deserved. In the closing 15 mins where both teams rightly had penalty claims turned down by the referee Strollers still came forward looking for a winner . In the end they had to settle for a draw but on this performance their first win can’t be far away.
