Men's 1s
Captain: Michael Clements
Match Reports 08/09
Saturday 27th September
Men's 1s 4 - 0 Giffnock
'Sonians bask in sunshine on Leith to put season back on track
Last week a 4-3 defeat away to early season pace setters Uddingston threatened to derail Watsonians season. Moral in the squad was low, with one player going as far as to claim my heart was broken, my heart was broken, sorrow, sorrow…
Following that disappointing result another trip along the M8 to play Giffnock was always going to be a testing fixture for Watsonians Flagship team. The final score of 4-0 to Watsonians suggests a fairly comfortable victory but the reality is this was a hard fought win that hung in the balance until well into the second half when the second and third goals were scored in quick succession.
The seeds of this victory were sown in the north of the Capital with the Leith contingent of Dunlop, White and Ferrier supplying the fire power for all four of the visitor’s strikes. Special mention should also go to Chris Miller for continually getting himself into scoring positions and refusing to hide despite his lack of confidence in front of goal. Much like Ade Akinbiyi during his time at Leicester City, Miller continues to graft hard and everyone connected with the squad are sure his goal drought will end soon.
The one piece of bad news for captain Michael Clements is the persistent rumour that White was listening to offers from rival clubs in Edinburgh, White himself denied this strongly claiming “While I’m worth my room on this earth, I will be with you”
Dunlop's fine brace won him the man of the match award but kid gloves keeper Alex will be rightly proud of a fine performance in keeping a rare clean sheet for the club that on any other day might well have secured the accolade for himself.
The squad now move onto face Greenock in what is the last of their opening four consecutive away fixtures. Another tough match is guaranteed as Greenock are flying high, currently occupying the second promotion place a point ahead of Watsonians. Confidence however, is high in the squad that if they can keep their mercurial northern trio fit and Rocksalt remains open for business they have the creativity and goals upon which to build further victories. They will be boosted by the return of Captain Clements to lead the pack and while the chief, puts Sunshine on Leith…
Magnus Ferrier (Chief Leith Mink)
Men's 1s 5 - Falkirik GHG 3
The men’s first team got their campaign off to a start away to Falkirk. They were pleasantly surprised to discover a sand based pitch that did not resemble the Sahara (those who have been to training or played at home this year will see were I am going with this one).
To encourage some after game banter we have adopted a points scoring fantasy hockey system this year. The clean sheet bonus for the defence was a write off inside 2 minutes as a sluggish start by us was punished. Fortunately we hit back quiet quickly with Chris Miller winning a short corner and then converting the rebound from a James Byers drag flick/scoop.
Another piece of abject defending and we were behind again. Although we had a swift response again and John Dunlop opened his account with a well taken goal within a minute. Shortly before half time Ally Jamieson (making his first start) finished well after our press took the ball.
Half time came and went and we were soon 4-2 up after Ally bagged his second although not in the most convincing of manners. With the home crowd getting frustratedG thought he would make it interesting and get tackled 5 yards from the goal making it 4-3. We had to weather a storm of below average short corners before Dougie wrapped up the game on the break with a minute remaining and a well taken reverse stick strike.
A special mention should be made to the two new school boys whoplayed well intheir debut. Fraser Sands unfortunately thought a break behind the goal is the done thing which made his fantasy hockey points -2. After bagging 2 goals and the man of the match Ally is well on top of the fantasy hockey table with 25 points followed by Dougie on 15 and Chris on 12.
Chris Miller
