Rovers hosted Allander in an important League fixture at Huntly playing fields. Rovers got off to a great start pressing allander all over the pitch and on 2 minutes Carlo Santi broke though from left midfield cut inside onto his favoured right foot and unleashed a great drive into the keepers bottom right hand corner, 1-0 to the Rovers.
Rovers kept up the pressure with Iain MagRegor and Anton Conetta dominating the middle of the park and on 8 minutes Santi broke up the right midfiled again, as he jinked past a number of allander players he dribbled into the box and was brought down, Rovers were awarded a penalty. Frank 'why always me' Coia stepped up and calmly placed the ball past the Allander keeper, his heart skipping a beat as the keeper got a hand to the shot, luckily there was enough power in the shot and the keeper could not keep the ball out the net, 2-0 to the Rovers.
Allanders 4-4-2 struggled to come to grips with the Rovers 4-2-3-1 and Rovers were pressing and passing the ball very well. Rovers missed a number of chances in the 1st half with Santi shooting over the bar from 10 yards out and Fraser Veitch beating the Allander defenders in the box and placing the ball past the keepers right hand upright! Allander were putting in some solid challenges and on 35 minutes their striker was booked for a dangerous tackle on 35 minutes, the 1st half finished 2-0 to the Rovers.
Rovers tempo dropped late in the 1st half and this continued ealry in the second half then on 50 minutes Rory Watson popped up at the back post to head home Rovers 3rd of the match. A great corner from Santi was whipped into the edge of the 6 yard box which Stuart Conway attacked the with power winning the header and forcing the keeper into a point blank save, the ball popped out to the back post for Watson to head home.
Allander increased the tempo and aggression in the second half and ended up with a booking on 51 minutes for yet another dangerous tackle. The rovers Defence handled the extra pressure well with Conetta giving great protection to the back 4 who were well organised, Allander struggled to cause the Rovers many problems in the final third with little arial power up front. Conetta had a great shift in the middle of the park breaking up both ground and air attacks allowing the attacking midfielders time and space to hurt allanders back 4.
On 55 minutes MacGregor was replaced by Tommy MacIntyre after picking up a foot injury, Veitch dropped into Defensive midfield and MacIntyre played the lone striker role. On 62 minutes Martin Clancy continued his return from injury at right midfiled replacing Watson, Santi was replaced by Liam Donaghy on 65 minutes at attacking left midfield and Lyons was replaced by Kevin Donaghy after picking up a recurance of his knee ligament injury on 68 minutes. The changes all worked well and the intensity of the rovers play was kept high. On 80 minutes Stuart Mauchan replaced Coia in the attacking midfiled role to see out the game.
Rovers had a comfortable final 1o minutes to win 3-0 with Darren McDowall in goal getting lots of protection from the Rovers defence who collectively were excellent through the match.
