Honours even as Currie and Leith both lift trophies

ON the evening Leith Athletic Colts were presented with the Lothian Buses South East Region under-19 Division 2 League championship trophy, their nearest title challengers, Currie Star, ensured an even spread of honours by beating their rivals 3-1 in the League Cup final at Dalkeith's King's Park.

Colts made it an under-19 league double for their club, as Leith Athletic's "first team" have all but guaranteed the honours in Division 1, but the newly-crowned champions made life difficult for themselves as they attempted to claim their second piece of silverware of the season.

Currie can attribute their success on the night to a blistering start to the game, opening the scoring after just ten seconds when indecision by Leith goalkeeper Alasdair Adams allowed John Paul Macmillan to net.

Within the following quarter of an hour, Colts contrived to find themselves 3-0 down, hardly showing the sort of form that had served them so well in the league.

Currie's second was again down to a piece of costly misjudgement in the Leith defence. A long, bouncing ball trundled threateningly towards the Leith penalty area as both the black-and-whites' defence and goalkeeper Adams stood off it, allowing Star's Ross Downie to nip in just as the goalkeeper had decided to come for it and head the ball into an unguarded net. Downie was clattered by Adams in executing the finish but it was Leith who failed to deal with the pain of conceding a second goal. Still licking their wounds less than 60 seconds later, it was this time a more orthodox finish that helped Currie to a third goal. Downie's cross from the right found Macmillan and the No.10 stepped inside his marker to fire a low strike into the net from the edge of the box.

On the half-hour, Leith announced their awakening from an early slumber by coming within inches of pulling a goal back.

Liam Smith slide-tackled striker Macmillan to halt a Star attack and swung in a penetrating, long cross from halfway deep into the Currie box, where Darren Davidson flicked a header on to the left-hand post before the ball fortuitously landed right in the arms of the grateful Dean Montgomery. Leith began more brightly in the second half but their keeper Adams was again in the thick of the action as he pulled off an impressive fisted stop to deny Downie's speculative long-range effort.

At the other end, Jamie Scott's equally impressive long-range drive had Montgomery beaten, but the ball crashed back off the crossbar.

Currie could have ended the contest with a fourth goal, and came close to doing so on 73 minutes as substitute George Fox saw his header from a corner cleared off the goal-line by Leith defender Blair Simpson. A crumb of comfort for Colts came with seven minutes remaining as they laid siege to the Currie goal.

Scott was tripped just inside the penalty area and Adam Hunter confidently dispatched the resultant penalty into the bottom right-hand corner.

Currie's quick-fire treble early on, though, proved the ultimate match-winner.

Star manager Alan Omond, who leads the Midlothian side with fellow coach Paul Dillon, was pleased his side took their chances.

He said: "We started pretty quickly, and that's what won us the game. In our last game against Leith, we had a few players missing and they gave us a bit of a hiding, but I felt we were the better team tonight. Our work ethic was great and we took our chances.

"In saying that, Leith deserved to be champions this season."

While Currie claimed the cup, Colts received the championship trophy in a joint post-match presentation, and league-winning coach Geoff Simpson was happy his side fulfilled their part of the bargain by securing the title – just like his club counterparts in Division 1.

"We decided not to run two teams in the same division, and it has paid dividends for us," said Simpson.

"It has been a good season for us. The day everything really turned round was when we were 3-0 down at Redpath Albion and came back to win 4-3.

"We really got some belief from that game that we could do something."

Leith Athletic Colts: Alasdair Adams, Liam Smith, Mathew Watson, Blair Simpson, Adam Hunter, Bobe Boyd, Ben McKenzie, Mathew Lloyd, Darren Davidson, Mark Dunn, Shaun Spence, Ryan Park, Darren Keenan, Scott Harrison, Jamie Scott, Darren Cain.

Currie Star: Dean Montgomery, Daniel Lockhart, Greig Hogarth, Ryan Stevenson, Stewart Cotton, Calum Gordon, Steven Cairncross, Yemi Adeloye, John Paul Macmillan, Grant Clark, Ross Downie, Daniel Cunningham, Ross Hepplewhite, Chris Inglis, Peter McDonald, George Stewart Fox.