Watsonian 3s march on

The 3s second match of the league campaign saw them travel to ESM, with the 3s looking to carry on the form that had seen them win all three games in September with three goals scored in every game.

It was a tight and even game early on, with a lot of play breaking down in the middle third and chances hard to come by. Midway through the half, Watsonians broke the deadlock, with Hogie stepping up to knock in neat finish on a short corner rebound. 1-0 Watsonians.

ESM were trying to get back into the match, but Watsonians were comfortable at this point and perhaps should have stretched their lead. Half time: 1-0 Watsonians.

The second half seemed to get going before Watsonians realised they needed to start playing again. A series of mistakes gifted ESM a series of short corners and inevitably they eventually scored one to level the score line. 1-1.

This should have been a wake-up call but Watsonians were under pressure now and starting to chase the game despite the equal goal tally. Nerves were frayed, and tension was starting to creep in. Then up stepped Dom Wright to shatter the tension with a wrong-side chopping tackle in the circle that reports suggest could be heard from Tipperlin. Flick and a card was the umpire’s decision. Fair call according to everyone except Dom, who continued to protest his innocence even after the game. The ESM penalty was quickly scored, only to be brought back as it had been taken too soon. No matter, he slotted the ball into the corner again and Watsonians found themselves behind and down a man. 2-1 ESM.

ESM kept the ball well while Watsonians were outnumbered without really pushing for another goal. Big mistake. With Watsonians back to eleven, ESM still had most of the possession but it was Watsonians who crucially got the next goal. Rob Stewart stepped up from sweeper to steal the ball just over the half way line and set up an attack. The ball found its way to Iain Struthers on the left, who span and fired in a great ball to the back post; Ian Duncan was in the right place to push it into the corner. 2-2. Game on.

Watsonians started to get on top of the game after this, although they were slowed down by Sam Wilmot’s enforced absence due to wrapping his stick repeatedly round an ESM player’s legs right in front of the umpire. The 3s kept pressing though, and managed to win a series of short corners in the last ten minutes. Nothing was working until Chris Sholdis decided to run a slip right. A neat pass left Rob Stewart with loads of space and time and he duly slotted the ball past the keeper and into the bottom left corner. 3-2 Watsonians.

The final action of the game was an ESM short corner and as the whistle blew they all stepped up. Tense moments, but thankfully Doug Swanson in goal correctly called the shorty enabling Rob Stewart to intercept the slipped ball at the top and put it on an ESM foot.

Game over, another win with 3 goals scored, and the Watsonian 3s march on with 6 points from 6.

MoM was Iain Struthers, narrowly pipping debutant Raez. DoD was Dom Wright.