Carrick Park Cracker
- Winning In The Rain
- Mar 22
- 7 min read
Saturday 21st March 2026
Scottish Premier Amateur Football Association
Premiership
AFC Chryston 1 - 3 Oban Saints
The Carrick Park
Carrick Place
Glenboig
ML5 2QS
Kick-off 2.00pm
Referee Mr John Cairney
Last Saturday 21st March Oban Saints made their final away trip of the Scottish Premier Amateur Football Association Premiership season when they travelled to Carrick Park, Glenboig to face AFC Chryston. With both clubs still very much involved in the league title race there was no quarter asked or given in a full-blooded encounter which Saints edged with Connor Moore finally making the points safe with a sensational individual effort in the ninety-fourth minute.
Leading goal-scorer Moore opened the scoring before hosts AFC Chryston deservedly levelled on the stroke of half-time through an excellent curling finish from Joseph Bunch. Rhys Millar put Saints back in front ten minutes into the second half but a second yellow card for Aaron Moore forced the visitors to play out the final half-hour with ten men. Saints however dug in and battled manfully to deny the hosts an equaliser and pave the way for Connor Moore's decisive late strike.
Aaron Moore and Donald Campbell returned from injury however Matty Kelly remains side-lined as, for the first time this season, Saints' Manager Steven MacLeod had the unenviable task of deciding who leave out a full travelling party.
Saints lined up with Craig Maitland in goal behind a back three of Ryan Barclay, Captain Scott Maitland and Louie MacFarlane. In the middle of the park Aaron McKay, Gavin Forgrieve and Aaron Moore were flanked by wingbacks David Beaton and Preston Macintyre with Rhys Millar and Connor Moore up front. Warming the substitutes bench were Connor Beattie, Donald Campbell, Will Graham, Matty Pollock, Kuba Ryszka and goalkeeper Graham Douglas.
Prior to kick-off Referee John Cairney led both sets of players and officials in a silence of remembrance for Donald 'Swollen' MacLean, younger brother of Saints' Coach Archie MacLean who passed away on Tuesday 17th March. The thoughts and prayers of everyone at Oban Saints are with Archie and his family at this sad time.
Saints started brightly on the bumpy grass surface at Carrick Park and had a slightly hopeful appeal for a penalty kick dismissed by Referee John Cairney when Ryan Barclay was bundled over in the Chryston box trying to get on the end of a Rhys Millar cross from the right.
Millar was busy again on the right picking out Aaron Moore for a scuffed tenth minute effort which Chryston keeper Aedan Houston held comfortably.
The movement of strike partners Connor Moore and Rhys Millar was keeping the Chryston back three on their toes and, when Millar jinked into the eighteen-yard box on the left, only a well-timed interception from Daniel McNellis denied Millar a strike on goal.
Louie MacFarlane returned to action with another solid performance on the left of the Saints' back three alongside Ryan Barclay and Skipper Scott Maitland. MacFarlane stuck out a leg to turn Ryan Waugh's fourteenth-minute cross from the right behind for a corner kick.
Brendan Johnson's left footed inswinger from the right landed squarely on top of the crossbar before, sixty seconds later, Johnson unleashed a powerful shot from thirty yards which flew narrowly wide of the junction of post and crossbar.
Connor Moore combined with Preston Macintyre to win a seventeenth-minute corner kick on the left from where Gavin Forgrieve's delivery was forced to edge of the box for a volleyed effort from Aaron McKay which Aedan Houston did well to hold.
Sixty seconds later Moore got the batter of Daniel McNellis to reach Aaron Moore's ball over the top and take the ball round the advancing goalkeeper to open the scoring.
Rhys Millar did well on the right in the twenty-first minute and looked to pick out Connor Moore in the eighteen-yard box only for Chryston Skipper Ronan McLaughlin to track back and take the ball off Moore's toes.
Connor Moore's pace took him away from Daniel McNellis to meet Aaron Moore's twenty-third minute long ball, but the big defender recovered well to deny Moore a second goal with enough of a deflection to send Moore's shot behind for a corner kick.
Ronan McLaughlin sent Connor Moore sprawling twenty-five yards from goal giving Gavin Forgrieve a twenty-sixth minute opportunity to test Aedan Houston with the resulting free kick. The Chryston keeper passed the test getting down well to his right to claw Forgrieve's well placed effort away from inside the post. David Beaton was first to the loose ball however his lofted ball looking for Connor Moore at the back post was too heavy and the chance was gone.
From a hotly disputed throw-in on the right Ryan Waugh raced away on the right wing and fired a dangerous cross along the six-yard line where Ryan Barclay turned the ball behind for a corner kick. Brendan Johnson's delivery from the right was met by Joseph Bunch with a flashing header across the face of goal and wide of target.
The hosts were in the ascendency in the closing stages of the first half and the pressure on the Saints defence eventually told when Joseph Bunch beat Connor Moore and Louie MacFarlane to retrieve a partly cleared corner kick on the corner of the Saints' eighteen-yard box. The big defender squeezed through between the Saint's pair and curled a delightful finish into the far top corner giving Craig Maitland no chance.
Saints' Gaffer Steven MacLeod demanded a reaction from his charges in the second half and almost received an instant response when Aaron McKay sent Connor Moore racing through the middle only for Referee John Cairney to give a questionable offside decision against Rhys Millar.
David Beaton and Chryston striker Darren McGhee exchanged off-target efforts before Mr Cairney intervened again flashing an extremely harsh yellow card in the face of Aaron Moore.
Ronan McLaughlin threaded a well weighted pass through the inside-right channel into the stride of Darren McGhee in the fifty-fourth minute however Ryan Barclay reacted quickly to get a vital touch to take the sting out of McGhee's shot which Craig Maitland did well to claw away.
Saints capitalised fully on Barclay and Maitland's joint heroics to regain the lead just sixty seconds later. Connor Moore's pace and determination on the left took him into the Chryston eighteen-yard where his cutback took out the advancing Aedan Houston and found Rhys Millar who slammed the ball high into the unguarded net.
Connor Moore was upended twice in quick succession giving Saints dead-ball opportunities which they failed to exploit with Gavin Forgrieve lofting harmlessly into the gloves of Aedan Houston and Preston Macintyre failing to hit the target.
Wing backs David Beaton and Preston Macintyre combined in the sixty-fourth minute when Beaton closed down Chryston left fullback Jason Stevenson and lifted a cross to the far post where Macintyre flew in to hook the ball back across the face of goal and inches wide of Aedan Houston's left-hand post.
Aaron Moore's earlier harsh booking came back to haunt him when his injudicious sixty-sixth minute sliding challenge on Chryston substitute Dylan McLaughlin had Referee Cairney reaching for his pocket again for a second yellow card swiftly followed by the inevitable red.
Aaron McKay's tenacity in the centre-circle saw him win possession and quickly send Connor Moore racing through on goal where Aedan Houston came well out of his box to reach the ball with a sliding challenge just ahead of Moore.
With twenty minutes remaining Saints' Gaffer Steven MacLeod made his only change of the afternoon sending on Will Graham to replace Preston Macintyre. At the same time the hosts made a further change with Cameron Campbell making way for Hugh Stuart.
Stuart was quickly involved in the action but was thwarted by an excellent save by Craig Maitland who threw himself to his left to push the ball behind for a corner kick which he then climbed well to punch clear.
At the other end Maitland's opposite number Aedan Houston made an equally important intervention when he raced to the corner of his eighteen-yard box to block bravely at the feet of Will Graham.
Chryston goal scorer Joseph Bunch was lucky to remain on the park when he felled Connor Moore in the seventy-eighth minute denying the Saints' striker a clear run through on goal. Mr Cairney decided on this occasion to show leniency and merely added Bunch to the growing list of cautions.
With five minutes remaining and pressure building on the Saints' goal Craig Maitland produced another excellent save to maintain his side's slender advantage.
As important as Maitland's saves at one end was the tireless running of Connor Moore at the other which reaped dividends deep into stoppage time when he appeared to be running towards the corner flag before cutting inside and firing the ball past Aedan Houston and into the bottom corner.
The action didn't stop there and there was still time for Jason Stevenson to flash a header wide of target before Mr Cairney brought a thrilling encounter to an end after seven added minutes.
This coming Saturday 28th March the D&K Lafferty Contractors and MKM Oban Building Supplies sponsored Saints commence their Scottish Premier Amateur Football Association McAvoy and McIntyre Trophy campaign with a difficult away tie against Dunblane Soccer Club.
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