HotScots 2 - 4 Real Tuesday

Never in the long history of the Real has a match report been so eagerly awaited. Why? Well, this was the game in which Jordan scored That Goal, the one that (if the country knew about it) would put those long range efforts by Crouchy and Zlatan firmly in the shade.

It's now nearly four months since that momentous day, but I'll do my best to capture it for posterity, in the hope that the wider football community may one day be able to afford Jordan the acclaim he is due.

The first 20 minutes of the game passed without incident, then the Real took the lead. From a corner, the resulting stramash ended with a fine shot from Stu that was heading for the top right corner of the net before the HotScots keeper clawed it out. The keeper wasn't so lucky when Ted swung the ball in once again, Jay tapping in for the opening goal.

The Real continued to press, and Jordan had a short range shot tipped round the post two minutes later, Mike Johnstone setting up the chance.

Jordan made no mistake three minutes after that, heading the ball home after a cross by MJ from the right wing.

The HotScots started to come into the game at this point, and a header went just past Dave's right hand post two minutes after Jordan's second goal.

Up the other end, Ted hit a glorious through ball for Jay to run on to. He did just that, and had time to take fully three touches before knocking the ball over the keeper and into the top right hand corner. That made it 3-0 to the Real at the interval.

The HotScots obviously got told to extract their collective digits during the break, as they came out firing on all cylinders for the second half. A HotScot header scuffed the top of Dave's crossbar just after the restart, then he was forced to dive to his left just after that to gather a goalbound shot.

In a rare Real attack, another killer through ball sent Craig through with just the keeper to beat, but he ran out of steam on the hard Fettes pitch and was tackled by one of the backtracking defenders. 'Dave Rolland would have scored that' was suggested from the sidelines ...

The HotScots got on the scoresheet on the twelve minute mark, a screamer from the edge of the box ending up in the left hand corner of the net. Dave managed to get a hand to the shot as it flew past him, but couldn't keep it out. That made it 3-1, with the HotScots very much in the ascendancy.

The gap was narrowed further ten minutes later, with our old mate Martin Thomson (playing outfield for the boys in blue on this occasion) tapping in from a corner. The goal was well deserved, as the HotScots were applying all the pressure, and our passing game seemed to have deserted us.

The Real dug deep, though, and started to come back into the game. The HotScots keeper did well to divert a shot from Jordan out for a corner on the 30 minute mark, then, up the other end, it took some excellent fist work from Dave to snuff out another HotScots attack.

And then, on the 45 minute mark, came The Goal. I think I should just transcribe what I wrote down on my notepad after this footballing milestone, as that's probably the best way to capture the moment and do it justice. Plus, at this late remove, it would be wrong of me to try and guess at the gaps that exist in my memory of the goal.

So here goes:

'4.45 - Jordan after defensive f*ck up: 4-2'

I'm welling up here - better leave it at that. A fine goal that secured a gutsy win for the Real over a typically feisty HotScots team.

Bill

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