Report

Talbot lost their opening friendly in an enthralling match that certainly entertained the shirt sleeved crowd. Sadly two rookie errors in the last 5 minutes cost them the match, but overall it was a decent performance considering Talbot introduced five new faces to the fray. Crawford started at right back with Aiden Wilson on the left and a new central pairing of Stafford and trialist Ballantyne in the centre. The central midfield consisted of Park and Healy with Samson and Glasgow on the wings with Mason as the lone striker.

The opening 30 minutes was a ding dong affair with both sides playing attractive football, and it was on the half hour mark that Mick Wardrope put Talbot ahead with a 25 yard raker that gave the keeper no chance. Shortly after the home support thought that their favourites had doubled their lead when Healy forced the keeper to parry his shot and Samson slid the ball home only to be flagged offside. Talbot kept pressing for another goal and although Tranent had their moments they failed to trouble Leishman in goals.

Talbot switched it up a bit by replacing Healey, Mason, Glasgow and Wilson with Boylan, Armstrong, McCracken and new signing Taylor. With Ballantyne moved to cover Wilson and McCracken in the centre the visitors started find small chinks in the Talbot armour, and one long ball up the park had to be saved by the legs of Leishman as the Tranent striker dealt with the high ball better than the Talbot defence.

It was easy to see that the visitors were getting the upper hand in the match and it was no surprise that they equalised with what can only be described as a screamer that even had the home fans applauding.

Samson was replaced by Heaney and trialist Miller took over from Wardrope, but it was Tranent who were still dominant as Boylan proved to be Boylan as he chased every loose ball trying to get a sniff of goals. On the 83rd minute and against the run of play a Miller free kick was glanced into the net by the head of none other than Bryan Boylan.

With the fans making their way to the exits, Tranent were thrown a lifeline on the 88th minute when Chris Stafford made a schoolboy challenge at the edge of the box with the resulting penalty being stroked past Leishman. As the referee checked his watch another blunder lead up to Tranent winning the tie, this time an over hit back pass by Gareth Armstrong flew over Leishmans head for a corner. The delivery was dropped right into the six yard box and after a couple of attempts to clear the ball it was finally poked over the line.

Overall it was a decent performance where the ball spent most of the time on the carpet, and although defeated we played a right good side who played some excellent football.