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Sat 05 Mar 2016
Stirling Uni 2s
Men's 4s
0
6
D Bell (25'), A Nair (37'), (47'), (57'), S Hendry (60'), F Munro (66')
Watsonians 3s 6-0 Stirling Uni 2s
Duncan Bell10 Mar 2016 - 12:52
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A sunny evening win in Stirling
Saturdays for the past few weeks seemed to have a repetitive process. Firstly, the regret of going out the night before coupled with the scramble to recover and go play hockey. Thankfully, on this occasion the opposition had pencilled in a slot that was according to one source the latest allowed on a Saturday. This suited this correspondents needs very much. However, amongst others, conspiracy stories ranged from weakening our team, strengthening opposition to allowing students recovery time. As the article will explain none of this ultimately mattered in the context of the game.
The Myreside meet revealed that on this occasion it was not only himself but several of his teammates had also taken advantage of the late pushback. The only questionable captaincy decision of the day involved choosing to use the smaller of the two cars to travel to Stirling. Unfortunately, I got stuck in the middle. I took comfort from Mr Hendrys words that we were probably helping to save some penguins we would never get to meet. The journey itself involved an engaging discussion of university drinking games from the proud establishments of Edinburgh and Aberdeen. The conclusion bunnies were too complicated and simple drinking games can also be fun. Some hockey was also discussed, more on this later.
On arrival, I finally had to show my outfit for the game as laundry-management skills or lack of them had meant I was wearing bright red shorts for the game. This coupled with my red top and red socks meant I was only missing some red shoes and potentially, as one team mate commented, a dash of lipstick. To further complicate matters, one of the umpires being colour blind could not differentiate me from the green of the opposition. Thankfully my ethnical qualities came to my assistance on this frontier. This all inevitably sealed my fate as DOD before even a ball was pushed.
The game itself started in comical fashion when the referee blew the whilst to start the game without a ball on the pitch. Our amusement on this point was not appreciated by this certain referee and for the rest of the game we had to be careful. For once the 3s started off in an extremely positive manner. Lots of passing around the back, lots movement and attacking intent. The midfield especially was doing a good job in getting the ball and distributing it quickly to cause problems for the opposition. Alas despite all of this we did not quite make our advantage count till fairly late in the 1st Half. A long ball to Hoagie lead to him using a combination of stick skill and Tualiagi defence bounces to get into the opposition D. There he squared the ball to captain Bell to tap in at the far post. The half ended with only one other moment of note when Fraser unfortunately could not capitalise on a one on one with the goalkeeper. He had done a really good job of finding the space and driving into the D and would have deserved a goal for it all.
The half time speech was all about putting this game away as it was our game to lose. This half saw some of the best hockey produced by the 3s in the time I have played for them. It started of with a short corner almost immediately from the restart. The ball was played into the near posted but cleared by a defender but only to fall for Nair who coolly lifted it into the goal. Moments later another short was awarded and this time a perfect ball by Hoagie to the far post meant Nair had to simply deflect it in to make the lead 3-0. Then came the hammer blow to truly demoralise the Stirling team. An interception in midfield allowed Nair to find Hoagie . He calmly passed it back to Nair as he slipped past a few defenders. Left one defender with a bit of skill and smashed the ball from the top into the bottom corner to complete his hattrick. I must admit I probably won’t ever strike a ball as well again haha!
With the pressure off the Watsonians team decided to truly show off their skills. The 5th goal when it came was the best of the lot. A truly impressive team goal that any coach would be proud of and textbook to say the least. Sandy Hendry the goal scorer on this occasion. The Stirling goalie did well to make sure it was not more. However Fraser made up for his miss earlier in the game by slotting in another goal to leave Watsonians with a commanding 6-0 Victory.
MoM:- Aswin Nair
DoD:- Aswin Nair
The Myreside meet revealed that on this occasion it was not only himself but several of his teammates had also taken advantage of the late pushback. The only questionable captaincy decision of the day involved choosing to use the smaller of the two cars to travel to Stirling. Unfortunately, I got stuck in the middle. I took comfort from Mr Hendrys words that we were probably helping to save some penguins we would never get to meet. The journey itself involved an engaging discussion of university drinking games from the proud establishments of Edinburgh and Aberdeen. The conclusion bunnies were too complicated and simple drinking games can also be fun. Some hockey was also discussed, more on this later.
On arrival, I finally had to show my outfit for the game as laundry-management skills or lack of them had meant I was wearing bright red shorts for the game. This coupled with my red top and red socks meant I was only missing some red shoes and potentially, as one team mate commented, a dash of lipstick. To further complicate matters, one of the umpires being colour blind could not differentiate me from the green of the opposition. Thankfully my ethnical qualities came to my assistance on this frontier. This all inevitably sealed my fate as DOD before even a ball was pushed.
The game itself started in comical fashion when the referee blew the whilst to start the game without a ball on the pitch. Our amusement on this point was not appreciated by this certain referee and for the rest of the game we had to be careful. For once the 3s started off in an extremely positive manner. Lots of passing around the back, lots movement and attacking intent. The midfield especially was doing a good job in getting the ball and distributing it quickly to cause problems for the opposition. Alas despite all of this we did not quite make our advantage count till fairly late in the 1st Half. A long ball to Hoagie lead to him using a combination of stick skill and Tualiagi defence bounces to get into the opposition D. There he squared the ball to captain Bell to tap in at the far post. The half ended with only one other moment of note when Fraser unfortunately could not capitalise on a one on one with the goalkeeper. He had done a really good job of finding the space and driving into the D and would have deserved a goal for it all.
The half time speech was all about putting this game away as it was our game to lose. This half saw some of the best hockey produced by the 3s in the time I have played for them. It started of with a short corner almost immediately from the restart. The ball was played into the near posted but cleared by a defender but only to fall for Nair who coolly lifted it into the goal. Moments later another short was awarded and this time a perfect ball by Hoagie to the far post meant Nair had to simply deflect it in to make the lead 3-0. Then came the hammer blow to truly demoralise the Stirling team. An interception in midfield allowed Nair to find Hoagie . He calmly passed it back to Nair as he slipped past a few defenders. Left one defender with a bit of skill and smashed the ball from the top into the bottom corner to complete his hattrick. I must admit I probably won’t ever strike a ball as well again haha!
With the pressure off the Watsonians team decided to truly show off their skills. The 5th goal when it came was the best of the lot. A truly impressive team goal that any coach would be proud of and textbook to say the least. Sandy Hendry the goal scorer on this occasion. The Stirling goalie did well to make sure it was not more. However Fraser made up for his miss earlier in the game by slotting in another goal to leave Watsonians with a commanding 6-0 Victory.
MoM:- Aswin Nair
DoD:- Aswin Nair
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