Annan Athletic's Sloan has the last laugh

Aug 20 2008 by Craig Robertson, Dumfries Standard Wednesday

ANNAN midfielder Steven Sloan was the butt of a joke in the dressing room before this match.

The 24-year-old was being ribbed by Harry Cairney that he was useless at striking the ball and would be better just playing it safe with a pass while out of position on the left wing.

But the local lad was clearly on a mission to prove his boss wrong.

For he was a thorn in the side of the East Stirling defence throughout the match, was by far Annan’s best player, and scored a tremendous match-winning last-minute 18-yard strike that will surely be candidate for goal of the season.

His goal now sees Annan sit proudly, a point clear, at the top of the Third Division after this dramatic 2-1 victory.

And no-one was more delighted that Cairney too be proved wrong.

He said: “We played him wide left and he’s probably never played there before and believe it or not he’s not a great striker of the ball.

“So I was kidding him on before the game and said ‘you can’t kick the ball any further 30 yards anyway so just get in there and play passes’, so when he rattled that one in I couldn’t believe it.

“He proved me wrong – he was our best player on the park.

“He was disappointed with his performance last week; we were all disappointed with our performance last week.

“Sloan came off last week with 20-minutes to go and admitted he played poorly and we saw today what his answer was to that.”

Annan seemed to have taken a dramatic step forward in the passion and commitment stakes from last week’s disappointing 1-1 draw with Stenhousemuir, when the Galabankies just weren’t able to take the advantage after their opponents had a man sent off.

But this week Cairney’s men stepped it up a gear after losing an early goal inside the first minute when Colin Cramb chipped Annan keeper Craig Summersgill with a delightful shot from the edge of the box to give the visitors the lead.

The home side was stunned by the loss of yet another early goal at Galabank.

But they kept the heads up and slowly worked their way back into the match.

Sloan nearly levelled in the 26th minute after picking up a Chris Jardine pass inside the box but an excellent stretching save by East Stirling keeper John Hillcoat kept it out the net.

It was Summersgill’s turn to pull of a dramatic save at the other end minutes later when he gathered an overhead scissors-kick from Brian Graham.

Annan pressed the East Stirling defence for a leveller before half time with both Derek Townsley and Sloan coming close.

But the equaliser came from the penalty spot after the break when Steven Archibald was brought down in the box by Stirling keeper, Hillcoat in the 49th minute.

Mike Jack did the honours with a decent low shot from the spot to make it 1-1.

The home side appeared now to be wrestling the game back from Stirling as the 968 supporters found their voices to will both teams on.

But it was Annan who had more guts and drive to keep the gas burning right to the very end to put intense heat on the visiting defence.

Townsley came close again in the 85th minute, blasting a shot over the bar.

But a decent second half was to be polished off in style by Sloan.

He picked up the ball on the left-hand side from sub, Graeme Bell, strode across the 18-yard box before striking the ball as hard as he could from the right had side.

It was only going one place – into the top corner of the net.

Not even the rowdy band of East Stirling supporters, who were directly behind the net, could deny it was a great goal.

Cairney added: “We need to try and cut out losing sloppy goals at the start of matches as I felt we went onto control the game after that.

“I’m delighted to be at the top of the league after just a few games but we’ll keep our feet on the ground as there will be a few teams out there who don’t know much about us, but they soon will and will know how to get on top of us.

“But we’ll just keep working hard and try to keep playing the way we have been playing.”

Teams

Annan Athletic: Summersgill, Brown, Inglis, Hill, Neilson, Jack, Sloan, Jardine, Archibald ( Adamson 69 min), Johnstone ( Bell 85 min), Townsley.

Substitutes not used: Grainger, Bell, Walker.

East Stirlingshire: Hillcoat, Hay (Donaldson 60 min), Ure, Bolocheskyt, Tulley, Forrest, David Dunn (Anderson 60 min), Gibson, Cramb, Nicholls ( McKenzie 75 min), Graham.

Substitutes not used: Kelly, Mitchell.

Referee: George Salmond.

Attendance: 968.