So close and yet so far for Watsonians women in Europe

EUROHOCKEY INDOOR CLUB TROPHY – DAY 3

WATSONIANS  2   BRZEZINY (POLAND)  0

It was a heroic victory for Keith Smith`s charges, they beat the much-fancied Polish champions Brzeziny 2-0 in the final promotion pool match, but agonisingly it was not enough. The Poles gained a single bonus point from the result and consequently finished that one point ahead and claimed the remaining promotion spot.

Watsonians women were given their target before the first whistle. After East Grinstead had beaten Swiss side Rotweiss Wettingen 5-1 in an earlier match the Edinburgh side`s task was to beat Polish champions Brzeziny by four clear goals to gain that elusive second promotion spot. Perhaps a tall order.

But Watsonians warmed to the task and in twelve minutes were awarded a penalty stroke and 17-year-old Jessica Garden duly converted.  Three minutes later it was 2-0 with an open play strike from Emily Dark…and now it was game on.    The Scottish champions then had to survive two penalty corner opportunities for the Poles but it remained 2-0 at the interval.

The second half continued to produce no further goals but the occasion became a little tense in the final quarter.  One player from each side visited the sin bin and with four minutes remaining Keith Smith replaced his keeper with an additional outfield player – a belated gamble to win promotion – there was nothing to lose at this point.   The gamble produced nothing until the final minute when Watsonians were awarded a penalty corner…but it came to nothing.

Asked about the frustration of the situation, here is what coach Keith Smith had to say, “We’re disappointed but certainly not frustrated – we were superb from start to finish today and gave ourselves every opportunity of earning promotion.  It was our best performance yet, unfortunately the Breziziny keeper also had a fantastic game and we just couldn`t find the extra couple of goals we needed to secure promotion.”

 

SCOTTISH CUP

In the men`s Scottish Cup Dunfermline Carnegie sprang to life and were 6-0 winners over second tier leaders St Andrews University.  There were two goals each for Sam Eadie and Andrew Doyle while Theo Wood and Sam Goldie got the others.

In the all-Premiership clash ESM were 4-0 winners over Clydesdale. A solo goal from Jack Collister opened the scoring to be followed Tom Clark who rifled the ball into the roof of the net – and that was all in the first quarter.   That is how the contest stood through the second and third quarters, but the Edinburgh side added to their tally in the closing encounters.   A penalty corner strike by James Stuart was saved but the rebound was buried by Callum Bradford, then late on Paddy Crookshanks converted another set piece for a convincing victory.

In the women`s all-Premiership encounter St Andrews University were 2-0 winners over Inverleith, Fiona Hawkings and Iona Syme were on target for the students.

The only other result was that Watsonians 2s beat Clydesdale Western 3s to advance into the quarter final draw.

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