A frustrating afternoon for the Welfare and an unusual one as they failed to score for the first time since August 9th.
All afternoon Whitehill struggled to get past a well organised and spirited Uni side who finished second in the EOSPL last season.
To be fair, Uni keeper Walker had very few saves to make, as most of Whitehill’s many efforts on the day were wide of the target.
In the first quarter of the match, Dayne Robertson had drives with each foot going narrowly past, and in between there was a 25 yard shot by Somerville which was held by Walker. Wayne McIntosh was causing a lot of problems up front and one flick set up Moffat, whose left foot drive went past the post.
The nearest thing in the first half was a Robertson free kick after a foul on Moffat. The ball took a deflection and Walker could only look on as it crept agonisingly past his right hand post. Stirling had had a fair amount of tidy possession in the first half but had been unable to trouble Walker’s namesake in the Welfare goal.
Before the whistle there was just time for an Aaron Somerville shot to be deflected for a corner, from which the same player headed wide.
At the interval Manson replaced Sproule as Welfare searched for that elusive goal, and in 54 minutes McIntosh broke through on the right but his shot glanced off the post. A few minutes later, sub Manson fed Dayne Robertson and his powerful drive was parried for a corner.
Louis Swanson replaced the struggling Gareth Thom and the pressure continued as Wayne McIntosh was the next to warm the hands of Walker, followed by a Moffat drive which flashed past.
With 20 minutes left Sinclair replaced Somerville and Andrew Kidd played in right back Jim Young on the overlap. However his low cross was hit wide by Steven Manson.
Whitehill had one more decent chance when Andrew Kidd headed over from six yards, before Stirling broke away down the right, the cross was headed back across goal, and Chris Geddes was there to knock the ball home with only 3 minutes left to win the match for Stirling. Referee Collum added a fair bit of time on but Welfare were unable to find a reply and the students march on to the next round.
Whitehill: Walker; Young, Hall, W.Kidd, Thom (Swanson 59); Sproule (Manson 45), Robertson, A.Kidd, Moffat; McIntosh, Somerville (Sinclair 69).
