8th June – Newtongrange Star v Whitehill Welfare – Derek Hall’s report

Newtongrange Star 3-1 Arniston Rangers
A second pre season friendly and a second Midlothian derby with Arniston Rangers making the short trip down the hill to face old rivals Newtongrange Star and it was the home side who made the early breakthrough when centre forward Davies skipped through to round keeper Capes and put Star one up within four minutes. Both sides created a few chances in what was an entertaining contest but Arniston should have equalised after 24 minutes when a lovely Neto cross found the head of Peggie right in front of goal but he somehow steered the header wide from barely eight yards out. However just on the half hour, the equaliser did arrive when a lovely cross into the heart of the Star penalty area saw Hamilton bullet a header past his own keeper as he attempted to make the clearance. Five minutes from the interval, Davies almost had his second when the ball broke to him about 15 yards out but he was denied by the strong left hand of keeper Capes who made an excellent save in turning the ball over the bar. So level at the break and a decent contest for the spectators who had come along to get their fix of EOS action.
On the hour, the home side regained their advantage when a through ball split the Rangers defence and substitute Porteous beat the offside trap and drew substitute keeper Jeffers before finishing with a lovely composed dink over the oncoming keeper into the far corner of the net. Five minutes later a lovely free kick from wide on the left by McLean had to be very carefully watched by Star keeper McCathie as it bounced in front of him but his handling was sound. Rixon had the ball in the net again for Star with 15 minutes left but referee Will Pare’s whistle ended the celebrations. Star keeper McCathie was again called into action on 80 minutes when he had to back pedal to tip a back post cross over at full stretch to preserve his sides slender lead. That save proved crucial because just two minutes later, Rixon moved into the box and despite being driven wide, he got a powerful shot away across keeper Jeffers who could only parry the ball into the path of Garvey who tapped home from six yards out. However to their credit, Arniston kept fighting and with four minutes remaining, Abbot should have reduced the deficit when he went through one on one with keeper McCathie but it was the keeper who came out on top and denied the striker with a fine block low down to his left to concede the corner. In the end a satisfactory nights work for Star as they get their season up and running, whilst Arniston will surely look positively on two fixtures against teams from a higher division where they acquitted themselves well and were always in both games.