John Smith Trophy.
Ayrshire AFA Select 1. Central Scottish AFL 0.
(Sunday 12th February 2012 @ Irvine Sports Centre).
At the end of the day the Ayrshire Select could thank their goal keeper Darren Wilson (Stewarton Utd) and to a certain extent and an own goal in the 22nd minute when Colin MacLeod [Bannockburn) unluckily deflected the ball past Jordan Longmuir in the Central goal.
The first half was quite an even contest and after the Ayrshire goal the Central side were unfortunate not to equalise before the break when they came close with a clever over head kick from Bryan Dingwall (Colvile Park) which produced an equally quality finger tip save from Wilson.
Into the second half and the game remained competitive but for all the effort it would be the Central team that produced any goal mouth excitement but again they found Wilson in excellent form.
The more memorable of these efforts was another finger tip save from James Hall (Cambusnethan Talbot) and when he pushed onto the bar and safety, a free kick from Dingwall that drew applause from the crowd, Central got the feeling it was not going to be their day.
The second period continued to be dominated in the main by the Central Scottish team, however it would be Ayrshire’s day with the result setting the scene for the return match to be played at Colville Park, Motherwell on Sunday 11th March 2012.
CENTRAL SCOTTISH AFL Jordan Longmuir (Colville Park) Thomas Airlie (Colville Park) Jonathan Marshall (Drumchapel Utd) Gerry Jamieson (Wishaw HSFP) Kirk Forbes (Stedfast) Colin MacLeod (Bannockburn) Kevin Cawley (Harestanes) Ewan McRae (Harestanes) Bryan Dingwall (Colville Park) Kevin Fotheringham (Bannockburn) Thomas Murray (Drumchapel Utd)
Subs: Ross Campbell (Harestanes) James Hall (Cambusnethan Talbot) James Miller (Colville Park) Gordon Passmore (Waterside) Ryan Ward (Ashvale Victoria)