England Triumphant in their first Centenary Shield Fixture!

Saturday 04 March 2017By ESFA Office

Last Updated:
10/02/2021 10:50:00

Scotland 1 England 5

Kingsford Adjei was the star of the show, netting four times as England made a dream start to the defence of their Centenary Shield crown at Greenock Morton on Friday night.

Facing a long trek north the England lads showed no signs of fatigue as they were fast out of the blocks and Adjei opened the scoring on 3 minutes, firing home from 10 yards out after Jack Butler had seen his shot blocked after a corner from Dan Barlow.

Scotland were rocked and for the opening 10 minutes England were rampant and were looking likely to extend their lead with the hosts struggling to contain Barlow in particular.

England had calls for a penalty waved away on 11 minutes when Adjei appeared to be fouled as he took aim from just inside the box but the referee waved away the appeals and Scotland breathed a sigh of relief.

The home side were edging their way back into the game but were not causing the solid England defence too many issues and Aidan Stone was quiet in between the sticks for the visitors but was called upon to make a smart save low down to his left to keep England ahead.

Shortly before half-time, Adjei added his second after some great interplay on the right saw him prod home from inside the 6 yard box from Jean-Luc Ramdin pinpoint cross.

With the visitors 2-0 ahead at the break it was crucial they did not take their foot off the gas and, despite Scotland having the best of the play after the re-start, Max Watters made a surging run down the right and his low cross allowed Connor Short to fire England 3-0 ahead and it was surely game over with less than hour gone.

If that goal did not seal it then the 4th goal ten minutes later certainly did.

Another surging forward run saw Max Watters cross for an unmarked Adjei to ghost in at the far post and fire into the net past a stranded Scotland keeper to complete his hat-trick and, just two minutes later, he scored his fourth when Henry Watson lifted a ball back across goal from a corner and Adjei was on hand to finish neatly at the far post.

Just a few minutes later Max Watters was felled in the box and England had the chance to go 6 up but Ross Connelly in the Scotland goal tipped the penalty onto the post and was alert to Connor Short’s rebound so the score remained at 5-0.

With Scotland deflated, the visitors simply had to see out the remaining 20 minutes but Scotland grabbed a consolation goal just as the game entered stoppage time but not even that could take the gloss off a tremendous England performance from back to front.

Next up for England is a visit from Northern Ireland at Torquay United on Friday 24th March 2017, visit www.esfa.co.uk for details on tickets for this not to be missed home fixture!

Match report submitted by 353 Photo - All photos from the match can be found on their website here!

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