Keith maybe lost 3-0 at Cove on Saturday – but hey we kept a clean sheet in the second half!
We lost six on the same pitch two weeks earlier, and at half-time on Saturday all of us of a Maroon persuasion were quietly thinking “Will we lose a barrowload after the break?”
Well, the answer to that was a second half stalemate which was a vast improvement on recent matches. it was a bit nostalgic in some ways, because we will obviously cross swords with Cove again in the future, this was more than likely the last ever clash at Allan Park with them being due to be relocated.
I’ve many happy memories of Keith games at Cove – we didn’t win very often – in fact nine times out of 39 games stretching backing to 10 January 1987 when we lost 3-2. Two outstanding performances from a Keith perspective stick in my mind – the first one was a Qualifying Cup semi final on 22 October 1994 – blimey that’s over 20 years ago! John “Jigger” Wilson nabbed both Maroons goals as we won 2-1 – his free kicks were absolutely deadly and they definitely were that day.
The best one though was a Qualifying Cup quarter final on 16 September 2006 – and we witnessed a marvellous individual feat. Keith won 5-2 and a 19-year-old Cammy Keith scored all five!!
No sign of those feats on Saturday when the Maroons only had one significant effort on goal – an 18 yard free kick from Michael Ewen that pulled a fine save out of Murray Kinnaird. There were a few positives from Saturday’s defeat though as the formation had been changed to take pressure off the defence and there was a marked improvement. A couple of soft first half goals didn’t help, but a battling performance from the lads was good to see.