A day of sporting woes.

Saturday afternoon, a weary Ladies 4s gathered at ESM pitches. The journey had been long and arduous with most members of the team having visited every other pitch on East Fettes Avenue before finally finding the correct one. Other members, were suffering - Tammy and Ellie pumped up with a cocktail of painkillers were with us physically at least and Cat, despite a back injury, had been sent over in a taxi by her mum. Just getting enough players there had been a victory enough, we all agreed. And just as well really given the events of the rest of the day.

Watsonians started slow and continued even slower. A slightly new formation was leaving us very open and a hungover Suze was struggling* to find her flow in midfield. Don't drink and hockey kids! For a change, 4s were the ones faced with an onslaught of attacking runs from the opposition and we gave away several short corners. Fortunately our defence were with it enough to see these off, with keeper Lucy making some excellent saves too. It was time to change things up. Becca moved from left back to forward in a bid to hassle the opposition's defence. It seemed to work and we were awarded a short corner, which Ashley duly hammered into the bottom right corner of goal to put us 1-0 up just before half time.

Half-time offered a welcome Haribo** boost and a chance to talk tactics. The decision was made to revert back to our familiar 4-4-2 formation and keep someone near the post at all times ready to pounce. We started the second half much more comfortably and some great attacking play from Cat, Katie G and Liz saw us up in the opposition's D for most of the second half. But ESM's goal keeper was doing a good job at keeping our score down and we just couldn't get a shot in. ESM kept the pressure up too, one of their players working past the defence to face our keeper one-on-one. Lucy did a brilliant job coming out to meet the striker but got tangled up with the player and for reasons not quite clear a penalty flick was awarded against us. ESM scored and it certainly seemed to mark a turning point in the game. ESM gathered momentum and were rewarded with another short corner, the ball being slipped past our defender and into the goal.

Only 5 minutes to go, Watsonian's pushed hard to get an equaliser with work horses Jenny and Ashley running themselves ragged to keep the ball high. Unfortunately it just wasn't to be as the final whistle was blown. Final score 2-1 to ESM 3s. Only comfort being that we hadn't had to endure watching the rugby as well....

MoM: Lucy
DoD: Becca, probably, for making all the wounded play on.

Thanks to Stuart P for umpiring.

*struggling for Suze is playing well for the rest of us mere mortals.
**other confectionary brands are available.