Away to Fidra. Not a happy hunting ground for the 6s over recent years…

We had scrambled together a pretty formidable line-up and started off confidently, with Lamb, Weaves and Foulds in midfield controlling the game and causing all sorts of problems for the home defense. But it was 'goal-a-game' Dunbar who opened the scoring when he latched on to a ball fed towards the goal by Weavers after a mazy dribble.

However the lead did not last long as a spell of pressure ended up with Miller hitting the forward's stick as he tried to clear the ball and Fidra didn't miss with the resultant flick.

We were soon back in front with Foulds scoring his first of the game and it was a well deserved 2-1 lead we took into half-time. In previous games we had seen Fidra attack strongly when they played down the hill and this was not going to be an exception.

Fidra pressed the defense at every opportunity and attacked at pace. However tight man-to-man marking meant that McNally only had to sweep up the odd break that got through the midfield. This was the main difference from previous encounters, where the Fidra forwards had cut through our defense and laid the ball off for an unmarked player to score.

We went into a 3-1 lead when Foulds finished off a good attacking move to score his second—but not his last. However we then entered the most controversial stage of the game as Fidra scored from a free hit that the defense thought was taken a lot less than 5m out from the D, but without a +5m circle marked on the pitch to help the umpire, the goal stood.

Fidra thought they had scored an equaliser when a rebound from Miller's save seemed to come off the forward's foot into the net rather than his stick. After a conference the umpires decided it was best to upset both sides and give a corner for a dangerously lifted ball. Not a bad compromise.

A drag flick from the corner was deflected over the bar by a jubilant Miller and the 3-2 lead was then extended when Weavers tucked home another flowing attack.

The final goal came late in the game when Foulds intercepted a pass in his own half, laid it off to Paterson then ran to pick up the return in the opposition circle before slotting it home to complete his hat-trick.

5-2 seems like a comfortable win, but while the strength of our midfield and forward lines were a major factor, the efforts of McCreigh-Smith, Graham and Robertson in marking a fast and fluid forward line was undoubtably the greatest achievement of the day.