A Bitter(ly Cold) Defeat.

After 24 hours of various interpretations of the weather forecast the battered and bruised Mighty Ladies Fours accepted that it wasn’t actually cold enough to call off the game and arrived at Fortress Tipperlinn to face Borders 3s.

With Tammy going to the extreme lengths of flying to South Africa to avoid the weather (rude), Lyns and Alisa were a welcome addition to the small but perfectly honed Watsonians defence. A solid start saw ‘sonians play the ball smoothly through midfield but Borders capitalised on an uncharacteristic gap left in the middle to slip the ball wide and grab an early goal.

Undeterred Jenny weaved her way through midfield as Elizabeth sprinted up and down the wing like a young Usain Bolt. The workhorse forwards and midfielders Olivia, Holly, Katie G, Aoife and Julia pounded the goal from all angles. Finally a ball sprung free and Holly took a strike only to be denied cruelly by the cross bar.

Playing high the ‘sonians defence kept most of the Borders attacks in midfield but Keeper Katie D was called into action a couple of times and even managed to not fall over and boot the ball from the strikers clutches on a cross to the back post. Border's short corners came to nothing and the first half finished 1-0.

With expert tactician and Manager Jodie on the side lines and the usual rousing team talk from Captain Becca, the Fours started the second half with a volley of shots on goal. Liv, having thankfully found her balls during warm up, skipped past defenders, Holly ran rings around the back, Aoife got into acres of space, Julia tracked back and linked well with Katie G to push the ball up the side line. However, the ball repeatedly danced in front of the goal line, was mere millimetres from going in at the back post, was a tap away from crossing the line, ricocheted off the upright but frustratingly simply refused to go in the goal! To add to the frustration the Borders Keeper even pulled off an impressive triple save.

With work rate at 100%, tiredness started to take its toll as Borders pushed hard for another score. Cool as the icy wind that whipped across the pitch, stalwart defender Lyns stopped a striker dead in her tracks with a casual step in and tap of the stick to make the tackle and clear the ball. Even the striker seemed impressed at such smooth skills! Ellie’s magnetic stick time and time again stopped the ball from entering the D and Catie appeared to levitate the ball past the opposition forwards up the wing. With time ticking down Borders won a couple of shorts but were denied by a wall of Watsonians.

Ultimately though Borders got through and although the initial shot was saved, the cleared ball ended up in the back of the net and Borders went two up to finish the game. Next game we shall heed the words of Holly’s young nephew “you need to hit the ball harder and score some goals”. Indeed we do!

Many thanks to LJ and Rob for umpiring (and congrats on passing Rob!) and thanks to our rowdy supporters (especially 3s for braving the elements to watch despite having their own game cancelled, much appreciated!)

MoM: Elizabeth
DoD: Alisa 'Snot Rocket' Gilbert