A cold and frosty Peffermill encounter

…but where was he at 4pm*?

Our recent victories were characterised by massive amounts of hard work and it was clear that we would have to repeat that if we're were to get anything out of this game against the Uni, sitting second in the league (behind Grange 5XI). However a win would actually lift us above them, once our 12-2 victory over Stirling Uni in the first game of the season was eventually entered into the record books.

We started well and moved the ball around the back and found Craig causing a nuisance in midfield where his distribution started off a lot of dangerous moves. Promising.

The opening goal came after great work by Tom down the right side, winning a corner which Bunker slammed home (getting to be a bit of a habit!). It wasn't completely against the run of play, but it was close.

After that the Uni put us under a lot of pressure, although to be fair we created a lot of it ourselves with sloppy passing and poor basics. The biggest danger was when their midfield outran ours and gave their forwards simple passes on the edge of the circle, but we withstood that and got to half time with a slender lead. If only we had another midfielder (any sign of Andy? Nope.)

The second half was fairly balanced with Miller only being called into action on a few occasions, which he handled perfectly. Ede, Bunker, McNally and McCraith-Smith simply mopped up everything thrown at them.

The midfield was pretty much out on it's feet, having played the whole game without a rest. But they still managed to create chances for the forward line, which was somehow bolstered by Robertson, who had mysteriously decided to appear on the right wing instead of his more customary defensive role. Not sure the Uni were particularly bothered about this :-) Still, the real forwards caused the home team all sorts of problems but were unable to get the second goal to secure all three points.

The discipline shown all over the pitch was remarkable and we got what we deserved when the final whistle went, with us holding on to a slender lead. Given that their forward line was on average around 25 years younger than our defense it was a remarkable performance and one that reflects the true character of this team (don't argue Miles, my first draft had it at 30 years, so I'm being kind to you!).

We made the most of our few chances and stomped on theirs, so yes, we deserved to win this game and to go into second place in the league. Fantastic performance all round.

For the purposes of the fantasy league I have to nominate a man of the match. With all due modesty I have to be fair to the punters who have picked your humble scribe in their team, so yes, McNally has been declared man of the match but to be honest if could have been anyone in the squad.

*I believe the answer is ”still in his bed”, after a particularly challenging night down at club as part of his training programme :-)
PS congratulation on the engagement!