The Ants started 2019 with a bang as a 79th minute KAMIL LESZCZYNSKI goal put Ashfield to the sword and means the visitors still haven’t won at McKenna Park since 2008.

The Ants started brightly and were on the front foot from the first whistle but it was Ashfield who fashioned the first chance of the match in the 10th minute but captain Ciaran Friel shot straight at McCallum after a nice through ball from Smith. The Ants then had their first chance four minutes later but a volley from the edge of the box flew past Farquhar’s near post. Both teams were trying to play some football on the excellent McKenna Park surface and Arthur thought he had sent Kamil through on goal but the pass was just slightly over hit allowing Farquhar to come out and beat the new Ants signing to the ball.

As the half progressed the Ants looked the more likely to score and when the Ashfield goalkeeper spilled a Leszczynski shot Arthur raced in and seemed destined to score his 10th of the season but the ‘Field keeper got up quickly and redeemed himself with a touch that put the ball over the bar and then got the rub of the green when the ref pointed for a goal kick. Having said that Ashfield did look dangerous when they got forward and Smith just failed to connect properly to a cross which McCallum got down well to gather. Both teams were defending well and the Ashfield backline did well to close down Arthur after MacDonald had found him with a fine pass and the striker couldn’t get his shot away then Farquhar made a great save after a sublime touch by Ants winger MacDonald gave him room in the box to get his shot away. Ashfield had bolstered their squad with three new signings before the match and one of those, Amos, almost marked his second debut for Ashfield with a goal when he leapt highest in the box at a corner only to see his header hit the bar and go over. In the 38th minute Lezczynski was sent scampering towards goal but was well marshalled by the ‘Field defence and couldn’t get his shot away properly then Crawford came within inches of opening the scoring for the Ants just before the break but his free kick went just past the post.

HALF TIME – ANTS 0 v 0 ASHFIELD

For as much as the Ants had shaded the first half, Ashfield will feel they had probably the better of the second half but as in the first half it was against the run of play for the first chance of the half when an Arthur cutback found Leszczynski who looked like he was about to stroke the ball into the net only to be denied by a great block by Leverage and the chance was gone. The McKenna Park wind had been blowing strongly all day and it seemed to get behind Ashfield captain Friels cross which had just to much pace on it for Cochrane to get on the end of it at the back post. Despite Ashfield having more of the possession the Ants always looked a threat going forward and the McKenna Park faithful thought Mark McIlvaney had broken the deadlock in the 63rd minute with a floating effort that went just wide of Farquhar’s near post with the keeper diving at full stretch. Ashfield themselves then had a great chance to open the scoring when McCallum made a fine save only to see the ball fall to Cochrane who wrong footed the keeper with his effort but could only watch on as it went just past the far post.

You had the feeling that there was a goal coming, but it would be difficult to say who for, with the match going from end to end. Ants sub Fitzpatrick coming close only to see his shot go just wide then Ashfield firing over from the edge of the box. A goal did come though and it was for the home side in the 79th minute. Gallacher’s through ball found KAMIL LESZCZYNSKI and the Ants striker made no mistake as he slid the ball under the keeper much to the delight of the McKenna Park faithful. As you would expect Ashfield pressed for an equaliser with the Ants content to play on the break and this almost paid dividends for the home team but Fitzpatrick couldn’t direct a shot on target then Leszczynski almost slipped his fellow striker in on goal but the pass just had too much on it. Deep into injury time Ashfield had a couple of corners and it was from one of those they almost got an equaliser when ex Ant Billy Stevenson got a flick onto the corner only to have his heart broken by an excellent stop by Ants goalkeeper McCallum and the ball was eventually cleared. It became apparent that something had went wrong for the Ants keeper after making the save and he had to swap positions with Ants defender Graeme Crawford following an injury to his hand left him unable to continue in goals but with the Ants having used all 3 subs the keeper repositioned himself upfront for the last minute of the match.

The refs whistle blew shortly after to signal a great start to 2019 for The Ants who closed to within 3 points of Ashfield in fourth with the win

Ashfield will be the Ants first footers for 2019 as we play our first match of the new year at McKenna Park this Saturday. Ashfield have been in good form this season currently sitting in 3rd place in the league having amassed 32 points from their 17 games so far. The Ants sit three places below them in 6th but a win for the Govan side would close that gap to just three points.

Both sides will be looking to build on the back of defeats in their last matches with the Ants looking to bounce back from a 2-0 defeat away to league leaders Lanark before the New Year, whereas Ashfield will still be smarting from a 4-0 home defeat to Vale of Clyde last Saturday.

The Ants are bolstered by the return of captain Anton Conway and Shaun Gallacher as well as the signing of Kamil Leszczynski whilst Ashfield have also been busy in the transfer market this week brining in attacking midfielder Aiden McNeil from Premiership side Renfrew and defender Alex Amos from League One leaders Gartcairn.

Ants manager John Kelly is looking forward to the encounter. Speaking to the Ants website earlier he said “We return home to McKenna Park after a week off last week and an away game in our last outing where we lost 2-0 away to Lanark. I actually thought we were very unlucky not to take anything from the game, they basically had 2 real chances and scored with them both which is a hard one to take”. He was happy with the effort levels from the players “Our boys battled hard and more than competed with them but like I said in my pre-match interview they are a good side and their league position shows that”.

Moving on to this weeks match he is under no illusions it will be a tough match and the boys will need to be at their best to take anything from the game “We take on Ashfield this week who themselves have aspirations of at least getting promotion if not challenging for the title itself. Our last outing against them at the very start of the season saw us slip to a 2-1 defeat but as has been the story a good few times this season I felt we deserved something from the game.” He feels the improvement in the team since then could bode well “We have improved since then and added some experience which we lacked on the day so hopefully we can get ourselves a good result on home turf.”

Having added Kamil Leszczynski has been a boost to JK who had the Polish striker targetted as a potential signing for a while “I am a big fan of Kamil, He brings a lot of quality to our attacking options and I am sure the McKenna Park faithful will quickly see why we speak so highly of him”

Last 5 Meetings

The club are delighted to announce that they are launching an official Ants eSports team, becoming the first Scottish Junior club to make the step into the emerging e-sports market, and have recruited 20 year old American gamer Tanner Kremer as their first player, as well as appointing him their Head of eSports. Tanner will be in charge of recruiting a roster, as well as entering tournaments under the Saint Anthony’s FC banner.

Hang on, what is eSports?

Basically, is it organised, competitive computer gaming and can be staged in front of a live audience and millions more online.

Forecasters have predicted it will generate more than £1bn in global revenue and almost double its audience to nearly 600 million people by 2020.

“It has the potential to become one of the top five sports in the world,” said Peter Warman of esport analysts Newzoo. (Source BBC website 14th November 2018 – https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46209628)

Ants head of digital and social media, Martin McKenna explained the decision “We have been aware of the emergence of eSports over the past couple of years, A lot of clubs from all different sports are starting to embrace eSports and as a club who have always been forward thinking when it comes to Digital we decided it would be a great way for us to hopefully continue to grow.” speaking about Tanner, Martin continued “Tanner had originally approached us to do a Q&A on twitch which we did and really enjoyed, the seed was then planted, we continued dialogue with him and we both agreed it would be something we could really have a go at. With his experience in competitive gaming, Tanner is being given the green light to recruit his own team-mates and we can’t wait to see him play under the Ants banner”

Tanner himself is delighted, speaking to the Ants website last night he said ” To become the head of eSports and eSports player for such a recently well known club is amazing. It’s such an honor to put on the green and white colors and represent this club in my own way. I hope to be able to do well and this club into some well placed events within FIFA and bring on some other talent as well in the future. I am excited for the journey and hope to be here a while with the great people of the Saint Anthony’s Football Club. #ForzaAnts#ItsAnEsportsAntsThing “

We asked Tanner to tell us a little bit more about himself “My name is Tanner Kremer, I am a 20 year old from the Bowling Green, Kentuck, USA. I do quality work at the Corvette factory here in town as a full time job. I actually only became a football fan the year of 2014 and I fell in love with FC Barcelona. I am a massive animal person and with that being said I have two cats that are just absolutely amazing little creatures. They both were adopted within the year and are not your typical cats. I’ve been within the eSports world since the year 2012 starting with Call of Duty: Black Ops II. I played Call of Duty eSports for 4 years up until 2016 and got my first FIFA game which was FIFA 15. I transitioned to FIFA eSports during the current FIFA 19 game. Played in my first tournament at a local USL club and placed top 4 of 32 teams. “

We are excited to see how Tanner gets on and will share his progress on the website as well as on our social media platforms, he also hosts a daily stream on twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/itsmatriix10/).

Welcome to the Ants Tanner, here’s to a successful partnership

#forzaants #itsanesportsantsthing

The club are delighted to announce the signing of striker Kamil Leszczynski. Kamil has played a couple of games this season as a trialist and has impressed the McKenna Park faithful with his hard work and eye for goal, having opened his account for the club back in September against Vale of Clyde. Manager John Kelly is delighted to finally have secured his signature.

I am delighted to have finally secured Kamil’s signature for The Ants. He is a player who I have worked with in the youth ranks and in the amateurs and its great to finally see him put pen to paper at McKenna Park. Kamil’s a real talent and he will add the extra quality to the team we needed. I have no doubt in the coming months, hopefully seasons away from a selfish point of view, bigger teams will come calling

Kamil will go straight into contention for a place in the team for Saturday’s match at home to Ashfield.

Ants captain Anton Conway is available for selection this week having missed the past 2 games whilst he was getting married and will be looking to help the team bounce back from a 2-0 loss to Lanark last time out. The captain’s return will be a boost to The Ants against an experienced Ashfield side who themselves will be looking to bounce back from a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Vale of Clyde last Saturday.

The club are delighted to announce the signings of former Johnstone Burgh forward Steven Fitzpatrick and Paul Smith from Eastwood Mount AFC. Both featured in last weeks 5-1 defeat at home to Muirkirk and have impressed manager John Kelly in training. Speaking to the Ants

website John said “Fitzy has been on trial with us for the last few weeks and he has done very well. He is another attacking option for us who can play up top, out wide or in the middle of the pitch which will be a geat asset for us throughout the season.I have been impressed with his work rate and his movement when looking to get on the ball and Paul is another player who has been on trial with us for the last few weeks and Paul has definitely got a great quality. Paul is an attacking midfielder who can also play out wide.Paul is great with the ball at his feet and has has a real eye for goal. I am looking forward to both players pulling on the hoops at McKenna Park

The club are delighted to announce a partnership with male cancer charity Balls to Cancer. The partnership will see The club proudly display the logo on their front of their shorts to raise awareness and promote the charity through social media.

Balls to Cancer are spending time and money on a nationwide (and in some cases worldwide) awareness campaign through the media, social networks, leaflets and posters, to try to make both men and women more aware of the dangers of cancer and to help men help themselves. We both believe that prevention is the key to beating cancer. Speaking to the Ants website Balls to Cancer Co-founder Mark Bates said

We are so grateful for the support given to us by Saint Anthony’s FC. We know that awareness is the key to beating testicular cancer. This simple show of support will save lives.

For more information on the great work that they do please visit http://ballstocancer.com

The Club have joined up with the On The Ball campaign to provide free sanitary products in the ladies facilities at McKenna Park. The campaign was set up to raise awareness of period poverty and we are delighted to play our small part starting from our next home game on 3rd November. We are the 35th club to sign up to the campaign in the UK, with Everton becoming the 36th club shortly after us.

We agree with the key messages of the campaign –

and look forward to seeing the campaign grow bigger as it gathers support. For more information on the campaign visit their twitter feed @onthebaw