Away to Edinburgh Univeristy 2s

The facts;
10 weeks since our last fixture together;
Minimal training undertaken by most of our squad; and
An opposition who had hammered us 8-0 at the tail-end of November.
I’d like to have seen what the bookies might have offered us beforehand, because I was more than a little apprehensive in the build-up to the game.

The University side started brightly and we struggled to piece together much possession other than scraps here and there. Ten minutes in and we began to look more comfortable and forcing our opponents to work much harder for their openings. Neither side created any clear chances in the first period and we were encouraged by our more compact set-up.
We started the second half better, forcing the university into avoidable errors in their half of the pitch and sustaining periods of pressure. We took the lead after some solid work about the fringes of the D from Kit & Tintin, who finally teed-up Stumpy to amble forwards and lash a classic inside-out shot past the keeper’s grasping left hand into the rigging.
The Uni boys came back quickly, equalising from a PC drag flick and I’ll be honest, with our bench no longer in a position to help our flagging on-pitch 11, I thought the students might steam-roll us in the final 10-15 minutes. After gallantly manning the decks with some excellent, scrambling, defensive work (one awesome reverse-stick, diving tackle from Doobs) for a short time, we managed to put ourselves back on the front foot and showed more positive intent for the remainder of the game and could have even snatched a win.
The game finished 1-1, a positive result made all the more pleasing by a positive performance over the full 70 minutes; something that had seemed to be an unassailable obstacle for this side in our tougher games so far this season.

My thanks to Ed for a very good umpiring performance too.

Photo represents a New Dawn for the 3s second half of the season.