Magnificent seven as ruthless Sauchie trounce Hutchison Vale

A RUTHLESS Sauchie Juniors put seven past Hutchison Vale to see them climb to eleventh place in the East of Scotland Premier Division.

There were four changes to the team that beat Penicuik Athletic just the weekend before: Finn Malcolm partnered Ross Kavanagh up-front, Danny Smith took up his usual position in the middle of the park, Brian Morgan assumed the role of sweeper in the back three formation, and Keir Burt would head between the sticks.

Josh Gemmell drew the game’s first chance; it had been a great run from Kavanagh to meet the loanee winger whose shot was only denied by Owens Samuel in the Hutchie net.

An arguably soft challenge involving Sauchie’s Connor Willaghan gave the visitors a chance from the free-kick, delivered by Logan Wilson-Need and cleared from danger.

Malcolm got the hosts ahead, an excellent ball from Kavanagh to give his teammate a ball in the middle of the box to convert home.

Just a short five minutes later, the away team was awarded a penalty following a tackle by Euan Griffiths on Luke Paxton inside the box.

Louis Signorini stepped up, and despite Burt guessing correctly, Signorini had shot past the Sauchie goalkeeper with power to level the game up at one each. 

The hosts went back on the front foot, searching to restore their lead, chances for Kavanagh and Malcolm to do so were called offside by the match officials. 

A foul on Gemmell gave him an opportunity at the free-kick, taken from the corner of the box, initially looking to be heading over, but this had ended up in the back of the net.

Kavanagh got the third within the blink of an eye, and this time, it was Malcolm providing the assist from close range.

It was evident that this Sauchie side was out for goals and more goals, Malcolm was denied his second of the game by two excellent saves from Samuel. 

The Kavanagh-Malcolm duo linked up again for four just before half-time, Malcolm getting his brace and once again deadly from inside the area. 

Gemmell would grab his second not long after the interval, a fantastic run from the middle of the park, only for him to shoot from outside and past the goalkeeper. 

Last week’s hat-trick hero Paul Simpson also searched to be involved in the goals, firstly a chance from the free-kick and following an excellent ball from Scott Davidson.

Simpson’s efforts paid off when he secured the sixth, a shot into the far corner taking his Sauchie Juniors tally up to five goals in his first six games for the club.

Kavanagh would round off the goals with his second and the team’s seventh, securing the three points on a memorable day at Beechwood Park.

With the scoreline as convincing as it was, Manager Fraser Duncan called upon his assistant manager Darren Cummings to join the action for the last ten minutes.

Cummings certainly can be seen as one of the club’s modern-day legends, a born goalscorer by trade and one who gave the Sauchie faithful much to smile about during his playing career.

Duncan spoke about this to Advertiser Sport after the game: “Darren’s worked tremendously hard this year in training with the boys, he’s also been working hard himself, he’s been in the gym and lost a lot of weight.

"He’s been joining in at training as well and getting himself sharp, even the boys say that he could still be playing.

"We just felt that this year, because we cut the squad right down, we might find ourselves short of a few bodies at times, and we think Daz might just give us five or ten minutes at the end of the games.”

The Sauchie manager also gave his thoughts on the game as a whole: “It’s hard to keep up momentum sometimes in this league, you come up against good teams every week. 

"We had a tough one against Penicuik, Simmy (Paul Simpson) was brilliant, this week we’ve set up really offensive by playing three at the back and with four strikers, thought that it paid off to be honest, we were ruthless.

"Thought conditions were testing and difficult but just thought the players were outstanding, every one of them on the park and those that came on were superb.”

Sauchie Juniors: Burt, Willaghan, Sc. Davidson (Thomson 71’), Simpson (Harrison 71’), Kavanagh, Smith (Cummings 81’), Sa. Davidson (McDowell 65’), Griffiths (Collumbine 65’), Gemmell, Malcolm, Morgan

Substitutes Not Used: Robertson, Caves