Napier rout St Andrews to claim BUCS 3A championship

Napier’s 1st XI clinched the BUCS 3A championship in emphatic style by easing past title rivals St Andrews 7-0 at Saughton sports complex on Wednesday 18 March.

Ahead of the game, St Andrew’s needed four points from their final two games to snatch the league from leaders Napier, who only required a win to seal the title.

Despite their superior position in the league, Napier took nothing for granted, using their superior strength and aggression to storm seven goals past their opponents in a superb team performance.

Powerful striker Chris Crookes was first to start the rout, firing Napier ahead after just two minutes. Finding himself in the box with no marker, Crookes managed to latch onto a cross before drilling the ball past ‘keeper Donal Gorman.

Napier soon grabbed another courtesy of Craig Magee’s clever positioning. The midfielder was in the perfect spot to pick up the rebound after Gorman parried a powerful Chris McIntyre shot and he made no mistake, slamming the ball into the back of the net to double Napier’s lead.

The St Andrews players had clearly not been expecting such an early onslaught, and soon found themselves screaming at each other to tighten up. However, this seemed to do them more wrong than good, and their classy opponents were quick to exploit the lack of pace and power in the St. Andrews defence.

On 40 minutes, Napier winger Chris McIntyre managed to find space on the right before sending a high ball into his fellow winger Vito Volta who was lurking in the box. Despite being the smallest man on the pitch Volta managed to jump and loop a header over a stunned Gorman.

Napier had just enough time to score another before half time, this time thanks to defender John Stewart. The strong centre-half shook off his marker and rose above everyone else to head in Napier’s forth of the afternoon.

Despite early efforts from the visitors after the restart, a well-organised Napier defence prevented St Andrews from making any sort of threat, and St Andrews only looked like they were destined to fall even further behind.

It was not long before Napier grabbed their fifth goal, putting the result, and the title, beyond question. This time it was dead-ball specialist, Chris McIntyre, who stepped up confidently to a free-kick from 25 yards out, curling it over the poorly constructed wall and into the net.

The away side were now totally demoralised, and Napier looked to seek advantage, with two players in particular beginning to rule this now lifeless game. Orin Parkinson dictated the flow of the game from midfield, while Gavin Malin’s constant drives from deep had the shaky St Andrews defence in a fluster.

It was no surprise then that on 85 minutes the two combined to score a fantastic goal. A typically bullish Parkinson managed to hold off two defenders before threading a great through-ball to Malin who just beat the offside trap. One-on-One with Gorman, Malin skilfully rounded the ‘keeper before calmly slotting the ball between the posts.

The final blow came for St Andrews in the 89th minute, when Volta quickly accelerated down the left before passing into a cramped box. The ball looked to be heading out before Malin came from nowhere to slam the ball home and claim his second and his team’s seventh of the match, which could only be described as a one-horse race.