12 Points from Grange

How do you measure a successful team? Perhaps that they score more goals than anyone else in the league. Or maybe that they concede fewer. Or win more and lose fewer games than anyone else. All good options but not the one that this correspondent chooses. No, a successful team wins when it matters.

And so it was that the men of Watsonians 3s ran out on a sunny Saturday virtually nothing separating them from both the Grange Dev and Grange 5 teams. Two wins in the weekend would guarantee the league was theirs by Sunday evening.

There were goals to be had in the sunshine though and Watsonians started strong, winning a couple of early short corners. A slip to the injector was initially saved but fell neatly for David Hogarth to slot home from a yard out, 1-0. Our tails were up but Grange were breaking hard and won a short corner at the other end of the pitch. The injection was a little loose and they opted for a slip to the right.
The first shot was generously judged by Keeper Doug Swanson to be a drag. He got his glove to it but it deflected on to Ian Duncan's leg on the baseline. PF awarded and duly slotted home. We continued to win shorts but failed to repeat our early success.

The second half brought much of the same, with the maroon shirts having the lion's share of possession, camping long enough in the Grange 25 that Rich Booth could probably have popped out to the party bus for a tent. No such rest for Hogarth though as he drove the baseline, weathering some heavy tackles ignoring shouts for a PF to slip the ball home. 2-1 Watsonians. Messrs Gray and Taylor both seemed to feel that the game wasn't close enough, choosing to either pass the ball straight off the side of the pitch or directly to the centre forward respectively. Eventually, with less than 10 minutes to go Murray Cannon broke through the left side to deliver his trademark reverse stick shot. Unlike the usual shots though, this one was close enough to the target that Greg Robertson managed to deflect it into the goal to make it 3-1 and victory was in the bag.

Calum Wood was MoM for his impactful attacking work, especially in the second half
Rich Gray was DoD for some generous passes to Grange

Thanks to Alida Dow for umpiring