It was a lovely sunny day, the Reds were back at Hurlingham Park for the first time in a few seasons after it's refurbishment and with a big squad to choose from all was well in the world. Not so for opponents Brum who after some late call off's were left with only 10 men to take the field in this APFSCIL Div 1 opener. The result therefore was as expected but the Reds know they won't get it so easy in many other games this season.

With two debutants in their lineup Aberdeen started off at a cracking pace. Neat passing moves saw Rand and Campbell continually get in down the wings while Ho and Sharp were linking well and causing chaos for the visitors defence. A good cross from Rand evaded the forwards but Campbell couldn't keep his drive down. Ho got in behind the Brum defence a couple of times but wasn't able to control his finishing, one effort flying over and another wide. Ho's pace was causing problems and it was no surprise when he was involved in the opener, as the blues defence dithered Ho stepped in, steadied himself to shoot and was promptly unceremoniously dumped on his face by a shockingly late tackle. The ref pointed to the spot despite the rather hopeful appeal from the defender that, "It was a tackle for the ball", have to remember that one next time I half someone 6 feet in the air! Rand cool as you like stepped up and smacked the ball in off the post 1-0.

Aberdeen piled forward, Campbell, who was a having a good debut on the left was unlucky to see his net bound effort deflect over for a corner. Reid was involved in everything and was stealing the ball of Brum at every turn starting attack after attack. Good play on the right saw Rand delver in to the box and the keeper could only spill the cross directly in to the path of Jelinek who despatched a shot low in to the unguarded net, 2-0. Reid who was carrying a hamstring injury aggravated it and had to go off to be replaced by debutant Aubrey and all of a sudden the good work from the Dons stopped, they seemed to think the job was done and the game got scrappy and Birmingham looked like they might sneak a goal. Smollet had to look sharp to stop a 25 yard effort and at half time it was still 2-0.

The Dons tried to rouse themselves at half time but the second half continued to be a struggle for the first 15 minutes. Rand burst through and had an effort but the defender got there first and there was a bit of a collision with ball going for a corner. Unbeknownst to Rand at this stage the tackle had dislocated his toe. A couple of minutes later Rand was replaced by Ruari Carins and only realised the full extent of his injury when the boot came off. As the rest of the team were tending to Rand (well looking at the toe and going gads, hivnae a clue how to put that back in) Aberdeen got a 3rd. A bad defensive mistake left Aubrey (who had already had a number of efforts go close) with all the time in the world to pick his spot low to the keepers left, 3-0.

The Birmingham heads seemed to go down and all of a sudden the Dons had yards of space in which to play in. Campbell was next up for a debut goal, running through the left channel he took his time and finished low inside the keepers post. Next up was the goal of the day from Jelinek, 25-30 yards out he let rip with a curling shot, which nestled in the top corner, a peach of a goal and the Dons on easy street at 5-0. Smollet proved he was still alert when he got down to save well in a rare Brum attack. Calum Stewart who had been having a great second half went on a mazy run jinking round 4 players before setting up Aubrey who's shot just went wide. Aubrey did get the 6th moments later, Campbell burst in to the box and when everyone expected a shot unselfishly cut it back to Aubrey who turned it home, 6-0 and a job well done by the Reds.

MOM - Good performances from a number of players, Captain Smollet kept it calm in goal, Davidson, Urquhart and Rennie marshalled the back line. Ho caused the away defence lots of problems and debutant Campbell had a fine game on the left. Man of the match goes to Calum Stewart, he overcame a sticky start to really make his mark on the game and his driving runs from midfield couldn't be handled by the home defence, was unlucky not to get a goal.

Rob Roy Reds - Smollet, Davidson, Rennie, Urquhart, Campbell, Rand, Reid, Jelinek, Stewart, Ho, Sharp

Subs - R.Cairns, Aubrey, Pritchard

visit www.robroyreds.co.uk for more information about the London based team.