An injury time penalty miss from Paul McDermott denied the home side for what would have been one of the most incredible comebacks ever seen at this level of football. Coldstream found themselves 4 goals to the good but a combination of a never say die attitude from the hosts and a complete collapse from the visitors seen the spoils shared.
 
After last week’s 11 goal thriller at Newbattle, supporters certainly wouldn’t have banked on getting the same action packed drama two weeks in a row. 8 goals, two red cards and a host of other incidents had supporters again licking their lips as the drama unfolded.
 
The home side made one change from last week’s starting 11 as Stephen Nethery replaced Liam Hall who he replaced last week after Hall’s early bath due to injury. Returning from injury to take their place on the bench was Lewis Russell and Jordan Easton who were joined by Josh Anderson and Ali Adams.
 
Playing with the wind to their advantage, the visitors started the game well and had their hosts on the back foot from the off. The home side struggled to cope with the conditions as the away side peppered the home defence with attack after attack. Coldstream’s first opportunity came after 8 minutes but the effort was fired over the bar with no real concern to Hay in goals. A corner was headed over again as efforts on goal kept letting the visitors down. The home side’s first chance came from Graeme Young who took the ball down well with his chest but his effort went harmlessly wide of the post.
 
In the 16th minute, a brilliant driving run down the left seen the Coldstream player make his way towards the edge of the box but his effort again flew over the bar although it had Hay more worried than previous efforts.
 
25 minutes in and Hay pulled off a remarkable save tipping an excellent effort round the post for a corner. The visitors must of wondered how they weren’t ahead but they didn’t have to wait long as from the resulting corner, Bailey Paterson found himself free in the box to stab home the opener. The home side thought they had levelled matters through Gary Shearer two minutes later only for the referee to deem a foul had happened in the build-up to the ball making its way through to Shearer.
 
Coldstream missed two guilt edge opportunities to extend their lead as first an effort was fired over the bar with the goal at his mercy after brilliant build up play which then lead to the cross, while Hay kept his side in it after saving a header with his legs and then had to watch the rebound which was acrobatically fired wide as the home the side looked around at disbelief at each other as to how easy the away side kept finding themselves in these positions.
 
Half Time: Easthouses Lily 0 Coldstream 1
 
The home side started the second half on the front foot and missed two opportunities in the first 5 minutes of the half. First Beattie volleyed over the bar from 16 yards out, while Ally Elliott saw his effort saved after brilliant determination from Young to win the ball and set up his strike partner. Those opportunities came back to haunt the home side as they found themselves two goals down. As Rhys Harbottle curled an effort towards the far corner, Hay found himself in two minds as to whether catch or push away and totally misjudged the bounce and the ball nestled in the far corner of the net to the disappointment of the stopper as the away side went 2-0 up in the after 59 minutes.
 
The visitors extended their lead 8 minutes later as a free kick played into a dangerous area was flicked on to Buster Briggs who was on hand to guide the ball beyond Hay to give his side a commanding lead. Coldstream were in dream land 3 minutes later as Harbottle got his second of the game. His firm strike from the edge of the box went through a raft of players which gave Hay no chance and made it game, set and match or so we thought.
 
The home side got a lifeline with 18 minutes to go after Young was brought down in the box and Paul McDermott sent the ball beyond the keeper to make it 4-1. With a glimmer of hope given to them, the home side were then dealt another blow with 10 minutes left of the 90. An incident involving Coldstream’s number 10 and Craig Beattie seen the visitors number 10 kick out at Beattie in the lead up to a free kick being awarded for the away side.
 
This resulted in the referee calling over the Coldstream player to speak to him but while this went on, not happy with the incident, the referee deemed that Danny Taylor had spoken out of turn and showed him a straight red card where in fact the player was speaking to one of his players. The referee’s response was “it could have been aimed at him” to add further frustration to the home players. Once things had slightly calmed down, the referee decided not to then go back and deal with the previous incident much to the amazement of the home dugout. No surprises as the player was taken off a minute later.
 
With 8 minutes to go, the home side cut the deficit to two when McDermott played in substitute Lewis Russell and the big man clipped the ball past the keeper and ball rolled into the empty net. The home side with nothing to lose, were rewarded with a third goal minutes later. After brilliant work down the right from Elliott, his cut back was met from the on rushing Gary Shearer who fired beyond the keeper to make it 4-3.
 
Buoyed by this, the hosts went for broke and were duly rewarded for their effort with an equaliser in the 87th minute. It was McDermott again with the assist as he set up Craig Beattie and the goal scoring midfielder fired home for a dramatic equaliser to spark wild celebrations.
 
Remembering what happened only a week ago, the players had to settle themselves down and find their composure but they sensed they had Coldstream on the back foot as their players looked shell shocked at what had just happened. The opportunity to win this game was given to them after Elliott held off the defender to play in substitute Josh Anderson who found himself in goals. The wide man got to the ball first before the keeper who brought down the player. The referee deemed this to be in the box and in doing so, sent the goalkeeper off and awarded the penalty.
 
More drama right at the end as the Coldstream captain and centre back took the gloves and made a wonderful save as he dived to his right to save Paul McDermott’s penalty in what turned out to be the last kick of the game.
 
Another quite brilliant game of football at Newbattle. Both teams will look at it as dropped points with the different scenario’s both teams found themselves in. For the homes side, they can now look forward to Tuesday nights trip to face Hill of Beath Hawthorns where they will most certainly have to raise their game if they want to come away from Fife with anything.
 
Full Time: Easthouses Lily 4 Coldstream 4