03/09/2026
Harris 5 Westside 2, League, 2/9/26
In recent years the goals tally between these two teams has been consistently high, so we knew we might be in for an entertaining game. And Harris were chasing a league double over Westside; the last time they achieved that the internet hadn’t been invented; indeed, Pathé News might have filed the match report.
The refereeing fraternity didn’t want to miss the fun either so three officials volunteered for duty. And we couldn’t have asked for three better.
Westside led after 23 minutes through Ross MacDonald. He’ll hit cleaner strikes but they all count. He was a massive threat all night, his touch and ability to run at speed with the ball a joy to watch.
A minute before half-time the visitors hit the post of the Harris goal and it rebounded clear. Small margins, sliding doors moments and all that. 2-0 might have been an unsurmountable deficit.
Plenty of honest talking in the home dressing room at the interval. A thousand Stephen Graham TV dramas would have had less intensity. We needed to give more. The people who come to Rally Park to watch deserved more. This is our house.
The start of the second half brought the rain but at least the midgies scavenged elsewhere. Then a goal-fest began.
Two minutes in Yahya levelled matters. He set himself with his right and lashed in with his left after Tyler had won a free kick moments before. The plot thickened like a cold bechamel sauce.
No chance to build momentum however as Harris blunderbussed themselves in the foot, and West took the lead again almost immediately. Great support wide from Gordon Campbell and he fed a ball in from the right that just needed tapped in. Luke MacKay did the honours.
Home fans, more invested than Marin Levidzhov was with Manchester United, felt the pain of having their eyes descaled with a wire brush.
Five minutes later though Dol MacRae (jnr!) scored direct from a corner on the left, and two minutes after that Yahya grabbed his second after a great ball in from the skipper Andrew. 3-2.
Without a substitute, an injury scare for Matthew in the Harris goal was a brief worry when he raced back to his goal then flopped to the ground like a double mattress chucked from an upstairs window. Luckily he could continue.
Harris needed daylight to settle the game and it duly arrived after some incredible skill from Ahmed after a short corner. He beat three men as he worked his way along the touchline – what they refer to in Argentina as “jugar a la pelota” – and laid the ball into the path of Tyler Gillies who knocked home from two yards.
Mesut Özil credited a youth spent on gravel pitches for his own lightness on his feet. Ahmed has a similar gait – and rarely do you see him go to ground.
Harris were enjoying themselves now, playing with elan, prising the opposition defence open like a can of cheap tuna with some very sharp tools. We grabbed one more – Dol MacRae with his second of the night slotting home from an increasingly narrowing angle on the left. This boy can finish.
Cue embraces on the touchline, like peak Everton Duncan Ferguson hugging the ballboys.
Our factotum, Kenny MacSween, was unlucky not to add to the tally having one ruled out for off-side, which he deliciously lofted over the out-rushing goalkeeper. Earlier Greg Hay had run from his own half up the touchline, cut inside and rattled the crossbar from over twenty yards. A goal of the season contender it would have been.
We have one game to play. Here’s the league table.
