Grove Menzieshill and Inverleith will contest this year`s men’s Indoor GALA Finals

Inverleith stormed their way into this season`s men’s indoor finals with a convincing 10-1 win over Grange in an all-Edinburgh derby in Dundee.

When Rory Steedman opened the Inverleith account in only two minutes, that proved to start a procession of goals from eight individual players – after all it`s a team game.  By half-time it was four through Ollie Wilson, Stuart Hatton and Andrew Clark.

After the interval the flow of goals continued – Kyle Taylor and Charlie Jack both picked up a couple and the other strikes came from Sam Hunt and Ewen Mackie.   Pretty convincing!

Not surprisingly the second tie was a bit more contested, but it was Grove Menzieshill who triumphed 5-2 over Western Wildcats. The foundation to the victory came in the first half when the Taysiders romped into a three goal lead with goals from Connor Chapman, Harry Mowatt and Findlay Duncan from the spot – and Wildcats never seemed to recover.

Two minutes into the second half Hamish Galt pulled one back for Wildcats – a comeback…but no. The Dundee reply was a penalty corner conversion from Duncan and an open play goal from Chapman…and it was game over.  In the closing minutes Fraser Moran got a second for Wildcats but that was too late to recover the situation.

Dundee Wanderers took fifth place for the season with a 4-2 win over Clydesdale – both sides avoiding relegation issues.

Bobby Ralph got a double for the Taysiders with others coming from Kennedy Gibb and C Cromer with replies from Ethan Robertson and Luke Bannerman.

In the battle to stave off relegation – it was Watsonians that avoided the automatic drop with a 3-1 win over Uddingston who will now return to the second tier. However, it was Uddy who took the lead through Luca Gardiner but by the interval Jamie Bowden had levelled.  Watsonians were the only scorers in the second half with goals from Dan Coultas and Bowden again.

Wildcats finished the season in third spot with a 7-2 win over Grange.  Nikki Homfrey opened followed by Adam Mackenzie with Albert Rowling replying for Grange for a 2-1 lead at the interval.  Wildcats opened up in the second half through Scott Menzies, Hamish Galt, two for Fraser Moran and Mackenzie again, Murray Banks replying for Grange.

Western Wildcats started the day off with a 7-2 win over Grange, although both sides had already qualified for the semi-finals.  It was only 2-1 at the interval, Fraser Moran and Adam Mackenzie at a penalty corner scored for the Wildcats with a Grange reply from Albert Rowling.  But the second half belonged to the Pool A leaders, Andrew McAllister and Hamish Galt along with a couple from Moran advanced the score to 6-1.   Murray Banks pulled another back for Grange but Mackenzie added a seventh before the end.

Uddingston picked up their first point of the pool competition with a 2-2 draw with Dundee Wanderers but they are still in line to take part in the relegation play-off.  Angus Sinclair scored twice for the Lanarkshire side while Kennedy Gibb and Sean Dowie from the spot with three minutes replied for the Taysiders.

But there were one or two things up for resolution in Pool B. And this is how it panned out.

Inverleith confirmed their pole position in the pool with a 7-3 win over FSEG Clydesdale and will play Grange in the semi-final later in the day.    A double from Charlie Jack and one from Ollie Wilson put the champions into a three goal lead only for Luke Bannerman to pull one back for the Dale.   Three goals in as many minutes from Andrew Clark, captain Kyle Taylor and Jack again for his hat-trick propelled Inverleith into a comfortable 6-1 lead.  Stuart Eadie and Charlie Feeney brought the Dale back to 6-3 but Sam Hunt added a seventh for the Edinburgh side in the closing minutes.

That result meant that the teams in the final pool match knew their fate or what they had to do.   Menzieshill were consequently confined to second spot and will face Wildcats in the semi.   For Watsonians, they only needed a draw with the Hill to avoid the relegation play-off.

But Watsonians failed in their mission, and that despite a hat-trick from Dan Coultas.   They went down narrowly 5-4 to the Hill, that left them a point behind Clydesdale who consequently retained their spot in the pool and avoided the relegation play-off against Uddy.

Despite the closeness of the score in the end the Dundonians were always ahead courtesy of going into a 4-1 lead after 16 minutes – a Theo Wood double and strikes from Connor Chapman and Alfie Bonnar were the scorers.  The score stood at 5-4 with six minutes remaining, Henry Mowatt got another for the Hill, but the Edinburgh side were unable to make that vital breakthrough for their survival.

 

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