A Winning Start for Watsonians Ladies 4s

The newly promoted Mighty Watsonians Ladies 4s *(TM) made the trip over the Forth Bridge to take on Dunfermline Carnegie 2s in the first game of the season. With the sun beating down the 4s quickly settled into their old ways with Carly pushing down the wing and Liv and Jodie forming the strike force up front. At just over the 7 minute mark 'Sonians won a short corner which was batted home to take us into the lead. Not to be outdone Dunfermline got a quick break and with some early season rustiness between the normally solid defence and Keeper Katie the ball squeezed past the back post and into the goal to level it at 1-1.

The 4s kept their cool in rising temperatures and pushed back up the pitch. Another short was given after some hard graft in the Dunfermline D, which Holly duly tucked away to take us back into the lead. Liv stared down the Keeper on a one-to-one but unfortunately found out that the pads are no match for her knees whilst flying at full speed and was unceremoniously wiped out with a nasty looking bruise that required a substitution and several ice packs. The whistle went for half time and after a well earned drink and a bit of tinkering, we headed out to start the second half.

'Sonians were determined to push the tempo and after Carly drove down the side she found Jodie (who was DEFINITELY not poaching, just to be absolutely clear...) who smashed the ball into the back of the net to give us a bit of breathing space at 3-1. Dunfermline obviously had a rousing team talk as they were instantly on the attack and were rewarded with a short after a frantic clearance attempt headed off the back line. Tammy, inspired by the recent Rio Olympics, took off like Bolt and did a sterling job to stop the straight strike but the ball was slipped and even after launching herself at the striker resulting in a tangled mess of Keeper and Striker the ball ended up in the back of the net to make it 3-2.

Dunfermline kept the pressure on but Liv returned to the pitch and got a break down the far side, some awesome moves from the Dunferemline Keeper which saw her prone on the deck resulted in a mad scramble to get the loose ball into the goal but alas it was not to be and it was pushed wide.

With time running down and relentless attacks from Dunfermline the ball was back in the D and a final short was awarded. A comedy push out saw the ball trundle across the D and right between Jenny and Julia. Both teams seemed to stop and watch it roll in slow motion until Julia suddenly snapped out of it and took it back into the D to hit it home to finish 4-2.

Good game to get us off to a winning start and takes our unbeaten streak to a pretty impressive 23 games. Great play from everyone and hopefully the cobwebs have all now fully been blown away. Lots of great performances today and special shout out to our newbies, welcome to the the team! MoM however goes to our stalwart Tammy for an outstanding display in defence.

Thanks to the umpires.

MATCH REPORT KATIE D