Braveheart Defending.

A team is a squad of players that come together to work for success. Only those performances on the field will make the decision about whether or not success is achieved. Every game has a beginning, middle and end. It starts with 11 players who cross over a white line with courage, pride and most importantly belief in themselves and fellow teammates. Tonight was another special night at Central Park as it had a little feeling of dejavu. You could say it was almost a replay of the fife cup, but this time we only had 90 minutes to take care of business. Perfect weather conditions for any match in my opinion, some keepers hate it others don't. When I was younger I remember telling my mom that I loved the weather this country had to offer and that I hoped one day I'd get a chance to play here. Some people wouldn't say tonights match is special, but every time I play Raith it is. A little story behind the story, when I came over to Scotland looking for my chance to play professional fooball the idea was to train with Raith during the day while trying to find a team at the same time. My first week was filled with bad news as they wouldn't allow me to come out at all. Little did I know our paths would cross again, but before every game we meet I think about that feeling of rejection. It reminds me that apparently I was just a Canadian who wasn't good enough, according to them. It didn't take long for my side to find the net in the first half. We played well as a unit keeping good shape in the back during the first half. At halftime the coach gave positive encouragement about how the players had performed over the first 45 minutes. He warned them about the second half to keep the level of play up and to not let down just because a couple good things have been said within those walls. Raith realized they had a bit of work ahead of them for the next 45 minutes. Getting the equalizer was the first thing on their list. Towards the last half of the match the pressure increased as the ball was mostly played in our end. Multiple corners and solid defending as a team kept the clean sheet alive. This was a good match to be a part of, one reason being our team won and kept a clean sheet, but it also put me 2-0 up on Raith as far as head to head. As we gathered in the changeroom after the match the coach talked to us about the game. It was clear that on a weekly base we can't afford to defend like that for the last part of the game. A solid team effort in the end, which was titled "Braveheart Defending." The full time whistle went, hand shake were made and both sides found themselves crossing over that white line again, this time they knew the result of the game.

Cowdenbeath 1-0 Raith Rovers (Reserve Match)