Merchi tame brave Lions

North Merchiston comfortably beat Liberton United Lions 8-2 at Harrison Park to remain in the leading pack in the South East Region Youth FA under-13 Division 4 table, but the visitors can be proud of a spirited, battling display.

Merchi were dominant but would have added further to their already handsome victory if it were not for the exploits of Lions goalkeeper Sean Adams, who pulled off one blinding save after another to deny the hosts' potent strikeforce.

Lions were first to plunder an opening with just three minutes on the clock. Mark Mackay powered through on goal, passing the goalkeeper with relative ease, but before he could put the ball in the open goal Merchi's Ruairidh Murphy sprinted back to clear the ball.

A couple of minutes later, Adams was called upon to thwart Daniel Carlyle, who was played through by Cameron Hunter but found the Lions' No.?1 was a match for his goalbound effort.

Merchi inevitably opened their account after a quarter of an hour. Carlyle's forward pass from deep was latched on to by Adam Crawford, who, like his team-mate earlier, couldn't find a way past Adams, who saved his initial effort at point-blank range, but Crawford stayed cool after collecting the rebound, calmly planting the ball into the net.

Liberton came close to levelling matters on 17 minutes. Thomas Walker won a free-kick on the left side of the halfway line, himself sweeping the ball over the Merchi backline and into the path of Mackay, who cleverly powered his shot over the advancing goalkeeper Kai Dishington but saw the ball dip just the wrong side of the left-hand post.

Merchi added two more to their lead before half-time, Connor Hamlin netting after the ball broke fortuitously to him in the box, and Mark McCall scoring at the second attempt after Crawford played him through.

Cameron Hunter rounded a hesitant Lions goalkeeper shortly after the break and netted to make it 4-0, but the gutsy south Edinburgh team responded immediately through Daniel Turner's speculative effort high into the top right-hand corner of Dishington's goal.

In the following five minutes, however, Merchi showed a ruthless streak in front of the Lions goal, scoring three times to condemn their opponents to a heavy deficit - Crawford notched two to complete his hat-trick and Scott Little struck a long-range piledriver.

Adams again excelled himself by pulling off a one-on-one save and Lions were further boosted when Mackay capitalised on some slack Merchi defending and poked the ball underneath the advancing Dishington from just inside the penalty area.

Merchi hit their eighth - the game's final goal - with nine minutes to play.Carlyle crossed from the left to give the predatory Crawford the easy task of side-footing past Adams.

Home boss Garry Smith was not overly enamoured with his side's display but was happy with three valuable points.

He said: "Last week, we won 13-0, and I think the boys came into this game thinking it would be easier than it was. A win is a win, but it wasn't the best performance from us."

Gareth Stemp, coach of Liberton United Lions, praised his ever-improving team, saying: "I've only been here four weeks, and all that matters is that there is progression. Our goalkeeper, Sean Adams, was outstanding, and the rest of the boys did well."

North Merchiston: Kai Dishington, Ross Little, Rowen Davies, Ruairidh Murphy, Marc McCall, Cameron Hunter, Adam Crawford, Connor Hamlin, Kenny White, Scott Little, Daniel Carlyle.

Liberton United Lions: Sean Adams, Jordan McNeil, Dylan Robertson, Cameron Henderson, Shaun Mutch, Daniel Turner, Kane Grant, Ryan Williamson, Mark Mackay, Liam Miller, Luag Laspina, Liam White, Thomas Walker.