M3s start with a 3-0 win

Shuttles, sprints, and planks; pre-season friendlies across the country; hours of match strategy on WhatsApp; it all pointed to this moment. The Men's 3s were ready and the league campaign was about to begin. In an interesting twist for the lads, the opening game would be against last year's league winners, Grange 5s. Last season the contests had been fierce but ultimately Grange walked away from each as the victors. Would it be the same again?

The whistle went and Grange surged forward. Captain Rob Stewart's new(ish) 3-2-3-2 formation and sixty percent press packed the Watsonians middle ground with players, giving Grange precious few options for the kind of ball they wanted to play. Watsonians were stealing ball and driving forward. They were duly rewarded early on when Andrew Littlejohn won a PF for a Grange foot that prevented a goal. The pressure was on but LJ calmly slotted the ball bottom right to open the count for the 3s.

Buoyed by the early goal, the men in maroon took the fight to Grange. The Grange midfield however weren't planning on lying down and some quality linking play between their centres and wings put the Watsonians wing backs under pressure. Chris Sholdis and David Sweetman in the linking two were working hard and preventing any real penetration into the 'D'. Watsonians' second goal came from a midfield turnover. The ball was shipped up the right to David Hogarth and the 3s surged forward in attack. The right corner was packed with Grange players but Hogarth sharply picked out Rob Stewart advancing into space on the left. Stewart found Murray Cannon inside the circle on the left baseline, and Cannon delivered the ball to the penalty spot where a waiting Littlejohn calmly slotted it into the far corner. Great team goal.

Murray Cannon was involved on the next goal too, when the midfield stole the ball again and delivered it to him on the right side of the 25. He spotted David Hogarth's lead splitting the Grange CB and LB, and delivered cleanly to front stick. With ball like that Hogarth needs no further encouragement, and he smashed the ball hard into the far corner before anyone could react. The half time whistle came and the boys jogged in for half time 3-0 up.

The second half proved a much scrappier affair with Grange's central midfielders looking dangerous when they carried and distributed the ball. The maroon shirts were tiring a little but held firm against several strong surges down the left side of the pitch. It was during one of these periods of pressure when a clumsy tackle from Richard Gray earned him a two minute rest to think about his approach to tackling. The 3s continued to attack and earned several PCs. The new season's routines looked good and it was a combination of bad luck and quality goalkeeping from Grange's 1 shirt that denied Watsonians further goals. When the final whistle came the lads were happy to take a break, and optimistic for the season to come.

Many thanks to Jerry Bolton for umpiring.
MoM - Robert Stewart
Goals - Littlejohn (PF), Littlejohn, Hogarth