Saints In Five Star League Curtain Raiser
- Winning In The Rain
- Aug 10
- 5 min read
Saturday 10th August 2025
Scottish Premier Amateur Football Association
Premiership
Oban Saints 5 - 1 Forth and Kerse
Glencruitten 2
Mossfield Avenue
Oban
Argyll
PA34 4EH
Kick-off 2.00pm
Referee Mr John Cairns
Oban Saints kicked off the 2025-26 Scottish Premier Amateur Football Association Premiership season in style at Glencruitten last Saturday afternoon. The first competitive match for the new Management Team of Steven MacLeod and Graham Douglas saw the D&K Lafferty Contractors and MKM Building Supplies Oban sponsored Saints put five goals past league new boys Forth and Kerse in a convincing win.
Youngster Connor Beattie opened the scoring for Saints and, despite Keir Esson briefly restoring parity for the visitors, a Ryan Barclay header before the interval and a second-half hat-trick from Connor Moore ensured the three points remained in Oban.
Saints lined up with Craig Maitland in goal behind a back three of Matthew Pollock, Aaron Moore and Ryan Barclay. In the middle of the park were Captain Matthew Kelly, Gavin Forgrieve and Connor Beattie flanked by wingbacks Aaron McKay and Rhys Millar. Up front were Connor Moore and David Beaton. Warming the substitutes bench were Shaye Black, Donald Campbell, James Conington, Innes Fraser, Aidan Jackson and Keiron Lopez.
Stirling based Forth and Kerse kicked off on the immaculate Glencruitten surface, which is a credit to the Argyll & Bute Council groundsmen, attacking the carpark end however it was Saints who were quickest into their stride. David Beaton sent strike partner Connor Moore through in the inside-left channel inside the first minute with Forth keeper Alfie Jackson racing off his line to deny Moore with his feet.
Wingbacks Aaron McKay and Rhys Millar both saw early involvement giving chase to balls in behind the Forth back four but again the Forth keeper read the situation well.
Connor Moore eventually got the better of Jackson on the corner of the eighteen-yard box only for Layton Wardrop to get back and clear Moore's effort off the goal-line. Fortune however favoured Saints and the ball broke kindly into the stride of young Connor Beattie who kept his composure to slot home from ten yards and give Saints a sixth minute lead.
Saints failed to build on the early breakthrough and allowed the visitors back into the game with Craig Maitland being forced into action springing to his left to push away a Keir Esson header from a throw-in on the right.
Forth and Kerse were rewarded for their endeavours when a sixteenth minute long range shot came back off Maitland's left-hand post with Keir Esson reacting quickest of all following in to knock the ball past the still grounded Saints' keeper.
The reverse provoked an immediate reaction from Saints with Rhys Millar winning a corner-kick on the left straight from the restart. From Gavin Forgrieve's short corner David Beaton cut into the box for a shot which the Forth defence blocked at the near post. From the resulting corner-kick, Gavin Forgrieve picked out Ryan Barclay for a header high over the crossbar.
Forgrieve and Barclay combined again from the corner flag in the twenty-third minute when Barclay's run and bullet header was inches wide of Alfie Jackson's left-hand post.
Jackson appeared to be struggling with a tight hamstring but still managed to get across to his right to push away a David Beaton effort from eighteen yards.
There was a loud appeal for a Saints' penalty in the twenty-eighth minute when Gavin Forgrieve went down under a challenge from Layton Wardrop. Referee John Cairney, who handled proceedings well, however, saw nothing wrong and waved play on.
Saints took the lead for the second time in the thirty-eighth minute. Connor Moore and David Beaton combined again with Moore finding strike partner Beaton with a cutback from the left. Beaton's shot had the beating of Forth keeper Jackson but not Skipper Blair Cameron who made an excellent block on the goal-line for another Saints' corner-kick. Forgrieve and Barclay got their act together at the third time of asking when Barclay climbed above Callum Hutchinson to head Forgrieve's delivery from the right down into the Glencruitten turf and high into the Forth net.
Taking the Captain's armband in the absence of Scott Maitland was Matty Kelly and his prompting from midfield kept his teammates on the front foot up to the half-time interval.
Saints made a storming start to the second half creating a succession of chances none of which they managed to convert. Ryan Barclay, Connor Moore, David Beaton and Aaron McKay were all off target before Moore eventually found the net in the fifty-fifth minute. The Saints' top marksman held off the challenge of Blair Cameron before taking the ball round Alfie Jackson and slotting home from a tight angle.
Young Donald Campbell replaced David Beaton as Connor Moore's strike partner on the hour mark as Steven MacLeod and Graham Douglas began to use their options from the bench.
A driving sixty-fifth minute Matty Kelly run on the right was halted unfairly giving Gavin Forgrieve another opportunity to put the ball into the danger area. The Forth defence had their eyes on Ryan Barclay at the back post but it was Connor Moore's near post run that Forgrieve expertly picked out with Moore glancing a header into the postage stamp corner to further stretch the home side's advantage.
Further changes followed from the Saints' touchline with Connor Beattie and Aaron McKay making way for Innes Fraser and Keiron Lopez.
Craig Maitland had been enjoying a quiet second-half but was called into action with fifteen minutes remaining leaping to his right to claw away a Keir Esson header.
Matty Pollock made way for Aidan Jackson in the seventy-fifth minute in a straight swap on the right of the back three. Jackson joined Ryan Barclay and Aaron Moore whose return from Lochgilphead Red Star is a welcome boost.
Connor Moore completed his hat-trick with ten of the regulation ninety minutes remaining linking well with Rhys Millar to tap-in from point blank range Millar's cutback from the left. The assist proved to be Millar's last involvement as he was replaced in the final Saints' change by Shaye Black.
There was a major injury blow for the visitors when second-half substitute, Gregor Johnston, suffered what was later diagnosed at Lorn and the Islands District General Hospital as a fractured collar bone. Everybody at Oban Saints wishes Gregor a speedy recovery.
To their credit the visitors refused to give up and were almost rewarded for their perseverance in the eighty-sixth minute when Callum Hutchison got the better of Craig Maitland and Gavin Forgrieve to send a looping header goalwards which Keiron Lopez did well to clear off the line.
This coming Saturday Saints' league title aspirations face a massive test when they welcome reigning Champions and Scottish and East of Scotland Amateur Cup holders Steins Thistle to Glencruitten.
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