Peffermill hosts big match in an exciting Premiership weekend

The game of the day is undoubtedly at Peffermill where second placed Edinburgh University entertain the champions Watsonians – how important could this fixture be in the bigger picture of the Women’s Premiership destiny?

Watsonians` head coach Keith Smith, said, “Now we have play-offs again, the main thing for us is to be in the top four at the end of the season in order to be playing for the top prize. We want to win every game we play, but ultimately, at this stage of the season, what happens on Saturday won’t dictate the final outcome, especially given both teams are likely to meet again after the split.”

Edinburgh University`s coach Sam Judge certainly laid out her stall on the matter of Saturday`s clash. Judge said, “It is important to us to win every game in the league and that is our aim. We approach every game believing we can win. It will be an extremely tough game but we are looking forward to it. It’ll be our first real test & it’ll be good to see where we are at.”

However, two things are clear. Both sides will certainly go out to win the match on Saturday. And we should be treated to plenty of goals given that both sides are averaging around eight goals a game… the goal scorers are too many to mention individually.

If last season is to be a yardstick, Watsonians won two of the league encounters with the other a draw, and also took the Scottish Cup final with a solo run and strike from Emily Dark

At the moment Watsonians top the division three points ahead of the Edinburgh students but the latter have played a game less – that may change come Saturday evening.

Almost inevitably after only four games under the belt there is a logjam at the top of the table – joining Edinburgh University on nine points are Clydesdale Western, Western Wildcats and GHK, all hoping to make up some ground on Watsonians at the top.

Clydesdale`s away fixture against Grange has been postponed.

GHK suffered their first reversal last weekend – after three straight victories they were on the wrong end of an 8-0 beating by the Edinburgh students, but again they should find things easier against a Glasgow University side that have yet to put points on the board, albeit with only two games played.

Also in the logjam are Western Wildcats after their hard fought victory over Clydesdale, and on Saturday they have Hillhead at the Auchenhowie den. Becky Ward`s strike against Clydesdale pushed the Cats into fourth place and has given credence to Kaz Cuthbert`s claim that they are a more polished outfit from the last couple of seasons.

The Upper Windyedge side have been a bit up and down with wins over Glasgow University and Dundee Wanderers but they went down to Clydesdale and Inverleith – albeit by a single goal both times.

And of the teams in the lower echelons only Uddingston made some headway with three points in a 4-2 win over Inverleith to move up to ninth. It`s better than it perhaps looks as the Lanarkshire side have already played Watsonians and Edinburgh University, so it could be upwards from here on.

Saturday could provide a further three points at home to a Dundee Wanderers side that seem to be struggling this season with four straight defeats.

Gordonians are also without a victory, and have yet to find the net and have conceded 28 goals in their three games to date. On Saturday Inverleith come calling in Aberdeen and now would be the best time to kick start the season.

The Edinburgh side have already had some success with a single goal win over Hillhead, courtesy of Stephanie Bain, and captain Eilidh Thomson will be looking for another three points to get closer to the top six

In the men’s Premiership there will be eyes on the Western camp after last Saturday`s defeat by Grange.

Western coach Vishal Marwaha said that his side`s performance was “tired and flat,” but he was clear that Grange deserved to win although the score line perhaps flattered the Edinburgh side.

Now Watsonians come calling at Auchenhowie on Saturday – a clear home win would see Western back on track, anything else could create jitters.

And Watsonians have made a more than steady start to the campaign, an initial reversal against Grange has been followed by three straight victories – so the win ethic is there.

Having got to the top of the tree after a 5-1 win over Western last weekend Grange coach Stevie Grubb will certainly not want to throw away the advantage against Dunfermline Carnegie on Saturday. The Fifers have not made the dramatic start to the campaign that they did last season with only one win in four outings, so will hope to turn things around this weekend.

And what about the chasing pack? Clydesdale, two points adrift, have been a bit of a revelation this season with three wins and a draw with Edinburgh University. This level of consistency will be further evident if Ciaran Crawford`s charges can pour in the goals against Uddingston at Titwood. The Lanarkshire side only picked up their first points of the season against Dunfermline last weekend and they did score nine goals in the process.

Ciaran provided the recipe for this season`s renaissance. “We`ve done a lot of good work pre-season which set us up for a positive start to the league. We`re also taking the season week by week and focusing on trying to get three points on Saturday rather than an over-arching season goal.

“Training has been at a high standard and that`s been reflected in our play over the opening few weeks.”

Edinburgh University, level with Clydesdale, are fair rattling in the goals this season with an attacking brand of hockey under the eye of coach Hamish Imrie – eleven last weekend at Monarchs. Saturday sees the visit of Hillhead to Peffermill; a side that have progressed up to sixth in the table with a couple of recent victories.

So what about Inverleith? They lay eighth with only one win in their four outings and captain Ed Iffla expressed his disappointment at losing to Watsonians last Saturday.

He said, “We had plenty of tempo, possession and circle entries but that just didn`t convert for us on the day. Now we face a must win the game next week to get our season back on track.” That means beating FMGM Monarchs – however, the Taysiders may have other ideas and fancy their first three points in the top flight.

As with last season Kelburne are currently floating around the relegation area and a home win against an ESM side, that have yet to find their sea legs in the Premiership, could be just the tonic for Gordon Shepherd`s young squad, and lift them out of the lower echelons.

 

Recent posts:

Back to all news
Back to top