Colts vs Watsonians M4s

Watsonians M4s vs Watsonians Colts

With our third away game on the bounce, the Colts wouldn’t have to travel far for our fixture this Saturday. We would be invited to Tipperlinn to take on our very own Men’s fourth eleven.

With only the one point so far in the league, the Colts side were feeling a bit hard on their luck, after losing a late goal against Stirling, for a hard to swallow draw, and the previous weeks defeat to ESM, with a 5-2 scoreline which didn’t come close to reflecting the Colts performance.

We knew the M4s would be a tough challenge for our newly promoted side. The 4s had started with two commanding wins, sitting themselves 2nd in East 3. We knew the squad well, with a number of former Colts players now turning out for the opposition.

Some recent changes had us without a keeper for the game, but with some Sherlock Holmes detective work, we had at least got a set of pads for a willing victim to don. And that victim turned out to be Zahid, with his claim of “I played in goals at school”, being all that was needed to get him the job. Zahid was in school back in the late 70s early 80s, so things might have changed slightly since those days. Like getting the pads on the correct legs.

The game started with the Colts trying to settle into a new formation, which had been received with blank looks as I tried to explain the merits of 3-2-3-2. We were pinned into our own half for the first ten minutes, with the M4s midfield pressing us back into our own half. After we had soaked up a good amount of attacking moves, with no real efforts at goal, we started to think this new formation might actually be quite solid.

In an instant we would turn defence into a counter moving, breaching deep into the enemy half and winning a penalty corner. After a quick discussion at the top of the D, Murray Cannon would stop, then strike into the bottom left corner.

1-0 to the Colts.

The game had evened out into a back and forth affair, with the Colts winning a couple more corners, and Zahid making a good save, down to his left, to see the ball past the post.

Half time and the score remained 1-0.

Our half time talk was short and sweet, asking for more of the same, and to keep playing our passing game, which had started to give us control over the field.

The second half had the M4s come out with gusto, breaking fast with the young legs in the side, breaking on mass. A drive into the D could have been blown for a PC, but with the umpire unsighted, the Colts would play on. Using speed of movement and fast passing, the Colts moved the ball down our left, where Murray Cannon would pull off a good revers strike into the back of the net. Perhaps a good reminder to both teams that you should always play to the whistle.

2-0

The restart had a long lofted ball into the Colts half, but was comfortably controlled and cleared. We now felt we could start to turn the screw, feeling confident in our possession and passing moves. Attack after attack now had the 4s pinned in their own half, with a string of good saves and last ditch tackles keeping the score at 2-0. A few solid tackles from Simon ‘the lumberjack’ Cox, could have seen him sent to the sin bin on another day. But the Colts boys had played through tougher defences and were rewarded when a goal mouth scramble was nicely squared by Ricky Tandon for veteran Adam ‘Biffa’ Marsh to tap in, showing that age doesn’t matter. If you’re lethal from one yard, then you’re lethal from one yard.

3-0

The game was ours now, we could taste it. Will Evans had the best chance for the M4s, choosing to take on his younger brother in a foot race down our right flank, then using good stick skills to get himself into the D, only to have his spin, trying to find a foot, be leapt over by Waugh, in the spirit of an Olympic high jumper and cleared again by Dave Baring. Waugh took a stick to the legs, which was a sharp reminder that he had forgotten to put on his shin pads.

It was too little too late, and the Colts would finish the day in fine fashion when Roddy Craig played a precise pass to Danny Tandon, who smashed it home from the top of the D.

4-0 to the good.

The match turned into a truly commanding performance from a more than capable side. The Colts have started to come together as a team and we really hope to build on these types of performance and cement ourselves in East District 3.

Man of the Match went to Zahid Hanif, for a fine clean sheet.

No ‘Dave of the Day’ this week. Which will be a happy announcement to Dave Baring.

Good win boys, you all played amazingly.

Big thanks to Gael and Vannessa from the L2s, for doing a fine job of umpiring a fast paced game.

Richard Waugh