Watsonians 3s vs Grange 5s

After a month off, it was time to get back to it, match day had arrived.

The warm up came and went without a hitch, and the intensity of it was high building up the confidence of everybody involved. Then came the starting line-up…Rob struggled to get his words out, but eventually managed to name the team in the correct formation.
With the league leaders visiting the team were eager to make a good start and get on top, and they did. Good teamwork and communication kept the visitors at bay, and the simple passing by Watsonians led to patient build up and were rewarded with their 1st short corner of the match. With this 1st clear opportunity, the simple straight strike option was favoured and it paid off. Injected by LJ, and hit cleanly by Hogie, the ball took a looping deflection of a defenders stick, over the keeper and despite the best efforts of the defenders, dropped into the back of the net. 1-0!

After this, nobody can really be sure what happened but the intensity just dropped, and just sat off Grange. Periods of pressure were sustained by Watsonians, but 2 short corners were then conceded and 2 goals were scored, 1-2. With heads down after conceding 2 goals in quick succession, the boys rallied together and picked themselves up playing some better hockey from back to front and created chances in front of goal. The chance to equalise was put on a plate after the ball squirmed free from under the keeper and landed in front of Johnson with the goal wide open, but still this was too difficult, and with swing and a miss and a blow of the whistle it was gone! Grange pounced on the missed opportunities and went up the other end and with a well worked short corner routine, and a baseline drive and cutback they widened their advantage before half time to 1-4.

Halftime brought a change in formation, and despite the scoreline the boys were raring to get back into the game.
The second half started like the 1st with Watsonians playing some decent hockey around the back and through the middle of park, with good link ups with the forwards. Again an opportunity presented itself with a short corner and that was capitalised on with another solid strike from Hogie, 2-4. The second half continued and Watsonians were dealt another blow, Grange were awarded a flick which Sam was unlucky not to save, 2-5. Then came another, Rich Gray shown a green card for not retreating, down to 10. Both teams had good spells but with Watsonians unable to get another goal back, Grange capitalised and scored their 6th and final goal.
The final whistle brought the end of what was a forgettable afternoon for Watsonians, but lots to be learnt and worked on for the big bounce-back next week and throughout the remainder of the season.

MoM: Robin Pyper