Revolving Door at Blairwood

Anyone turning up at any of Oakley’s pre-season friendlies or the forthcoming ACA League Cup group matches might be forgiven for thinking that they are at the wrong game!!!

No Fewer than ELEVEN players left in the close season , leaving Player Manager Willie Newbigging , his coaching staff and the Committee with a major headache. It is fair to say that most of the players that left had been approached (tapped) underhandedly in the weeks leading up to the end of last season, and therefore the mass exodus came as an unexpected shock.

A number of clubs “ethics” however need to be questioned in the manner of how they approach / sign players.
In reply Oakley have had to dig into their “Coffers” and sign a “NEW” Oakley team with to date some excellent results.

Early Games Show Promise

It would be fair to say that Oakley haven’t had their troubles to seek in the build up to the current season with no fewer than TEN first team players leaving in the close season.

“Tapping Up” seems to have been the order of the day with several of the players being contacted long before the end of the season with requests to join other clubs. This left Manager Willie Newbigging with a “major” headache as he had only four weeks to find a “new” team and give a lot of those players who left for a fraction of the true worth and that of the price of their replacements money has been tight.

But its all about “Starting Anew” looking forward rather than back, and with that in mind the New look Oakley have set forth into this new season. After a mixed set of Pre-season friendlies where the highlight was the 4-1 thumping of Kilsyth, Oakley’ Opening two ACA League Cup matches have shown a lot of promise if not results.

Oakley United 3 – 3 Steelend Victoria

Bannatyne, Lammie, Halpen.

Oakley were never behind in their opening match at Blairwood, but the new teams inexperience showed when they failed to capitalize on taking the lead no fewer than three time losing a late, late goal on the stroke of 90mins.

It might’ve been a different story hadn’t Midfielder Scott Lammie not seen Red for two yellow cards and Striker Greig Sinclair being Ambulanced off to Dunfermline after being knocked unconscious, after colliding with the perimeter fence. Greig received six staples for his efforts and should be back to face Rosyth on Wednesday.

The Oakley team was; Stewart, Fyfe (Wright), Fraser, Thompson, Morrison, Bannatyne, Lammie, Rushford, Cadbury, Sinclair (Bannatyne), Honeyman (Ogg), Halpen. Unused: Slythe, Parkyn

Hill O’Beath Hawthorn 1 – 0 Oakley United

Oakley always do it the hard way, despite finishing with nine men Oakley were the stronger team on the nigh but after losing Bannatyne as early as the 16th minute, it was always an upward struggle. To add insult to injury Scott Lammie was again red carded for two yellows on 75 minutes but only after he received some terrible tackles by Haws players that went unpunished.

Beath’s goal came courtesy of a deflected free kick on 15 mins that wrong footed the excellent Martin Parkyn who made a number of quality saves, back in goal replacing the talented youngster Steven Stewart.

On any other day a disappointing performance, in light of the experience of the team a significant step forward, especially when you consider a number of players have yet to come back.

The Oakley team was; Parkyn, Fyfe, Cadbury, Thompson, Morrison, Bannatyne, Lammie, Rushford, Honeyman, Ogg, Halpen.

New Signings

New Faces are aplenty at Oakley this season here are a few so that you will know who is who…

Anyone interested in “SPONSORING” any of the above players or with any type of sponsorship please contact Roy Williams via the email address on the contact us page.

Peter Fyfe	William Cadbury	Patrick Halpen	Brandan Cusick	Duncan Thompson

Bad Luck !!

David Murray was submitted to Dunfermline’s Queen Margaret Hospital following a broken leg he sustained during Oakley’s 3 – 1 win over Lochgelly Albert. In this pre-season “friendly” David was on the end of a lunging straight legged tackle that broke both his Tibia and Fibula Initial thoughts are that David will be in Plaster for as long as THREE months.

All those involved at Oakley wish David a speedy recovery.

Fife & Lothian’s Cup Draw

• Oakley are one of the fourteen teams to be drawn out of the hat in the First Round of the John Walker Sponsored F&L Cup.
• The draw sees the O’s travel across the Forth ( AGAIN )to play West Calder United. All of the O’s matches in this competition was South of the River versus Firstly Broxburn , then Blackburn followed by Whitburn, where Oakley were denied a semi-final slot when the referee played an incredible 10 minutes of added on time with Oakley winning 2-1, or just until Whitburn scored their equaliser at least … Oakley sadly lost out on Pens 4-2.
  
• Holders Bonnyrigg Rose avoided a first round tie.

The full First Round Draw is…

• Dalkeith Thistle v Kelty Hearts
  
• Harthill v Ballingry Rovers
  
• Newtongrange v St Andrews
  
• Thornton Hibs v Broxburn
  
• Penicuik Ath v Lochore
  
• West Calder Utd v Oakley United
  
• Rosyth Rec v Bathgate Thistle

Web Site tops a “Quarter of a Million” hits.

The Oakley United website to the end of July has had an incredible 252’239 hits. In addition to the UK, there has been hits from 45 other countries including the likes of Hong Kong, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Thailand but to name a few.

Australia is still the largest contributor with 28.2% of the foreign hits followed by the Netherlands with19.78%, with Canada a distant third on 5.94%. This compares well with other Fife club sites such as the Ballingry Rovers website (Worth a visit) with 8’444 hits and Thornton Hibs with 18’594.

Compared to both the Scottish Cup Finalist we again fair well , local “Rivals” Kelty Hearts have 45’657 hits whilst Double Winners( Super League & Scottish Cup ) Linlithgow Rose muster 170’219 hits. In fact we’re BIGGER than all four of them put together and still with 10’000 to spare…

Much of the sites success goes to Paul Moss of A Full Circle for his design and Maintenance of the site. Paul is willing to undertake more Junior Clubs as he has a number of Creative ideas bubbling nicely on the back burner… contact Paul on paul@www.afullcircle.co.uk

Two of Oakley’s finest have made the step up to Senior and all us wish them all the very best for the future.

Brian POTTER has made the step up to join HAMILTON ACCIES as a Goalkeeping Coach . He has been at this level before Playing with Raith Rovers during their Scottish League Cup winning season and also whilst Coaching at East Fife. He had many successful years at Oakley were a series of shoulder operations ended a dazzling Junior career.

Scot Buist has joined ALLOA ATHLETIC after almost two years at Oakley were he has been a first team regular since joining from Camelon Juniors. Scot has twice been the Runner-Up in the Oakley Player of the year awards and was widely regarded as one of the best Right Backs in the Junior game..
Scot got off to a winning start with Alloa to their league campaign, returning from Peterhead with a Four – One victory.

Hopefully on their “resting” days they will return to support the new string of players at Blairwood Park.

Good Luck to them both from all at Oakley United.

Super League Consolidation

The East Region Super League is widely regarded as the best Junior league in Scotland. Understandable when you consider that 10 of the last 12 Scottish Cup finalists come from that league.

After a long hard season OAKLEY have secured Super league status for at least another year. The highlights of the league Campaign being the 5-1 thrashing of Tayport at Canniepart Park with the comeback versus Linlithgow Rose from being 3-1down to draw three apiece another great night .

Top Goal scorers for the O’s in this seasons campaign were Ryan Ewing with 9 and Jimmy Lister with 8 out of a total of the 36 scored.

Kingdom Cup Success

For the second time in three years Oakley’s Captain raised aloft the Kingdom Kegs Cup after beating Ballingry Rovers 3 – 1 in the final held at Dundonald.

Goals from Ross Morrison,and secured the cup for the O’s and Scott Lammie picked up the Man of the Match award.

En route to the final Oakley beat last seasons winners St Andrews 5-1,Lochore on penalties after drawing 1-1 in the Quarter final before then destroying Bankfoot 5-1 in the Semi.

In total Oakley scored 14 goals in the four games, conceding only 4. Top scorer for the O’s was with four.