Premiership trophy time

The last weekend of the Premiership league campaign has produced a number of crucial fixtures as the season reaches its climax.

This year`s league winners have yet to be crowned – both the men`s and women`s leagues may be two horse races, but the horses are pretty much neck-and-neck.

Last Saturday`s results are a prime example of what a thin dividing line there is at the top level between success and disappointment – Western`s Vishal Marwaha and Watsonians` Keith Smith might share that viewpoint.

The pendulum looks to have swung in Grange`s favour in the men`s race after they came away from Auchenhowie with a hard-earned 1-1 draw, thereby retaining their unbeaten record and a crucial one point lead over rivals Western.

Grange will claim their seventh championship if they can take the three points from their final fixture against fifth placed Watsonians on Saturday.

They will have confidence, given that they won the earlier outing 5-0, but then again that was the first game of the season, and they did win the Scottish Cup tie 3-1 – but the league title at stake can sometimes add to the pressure of the occasion.

And it`s not as if the game is meaningless to Watsonians, they need to win to have any hope of beating Clydesdale to that last semi-final spot. The sides are level on points but the Titwood side have a better goal difference, and they are at home to sixth placed Inverleith. The `Dale will fancy the three points.

So what of Western? Coach Vishal Marwaha will give his full attention to taking the three points from their home game against Edinburgh University, and then hope that Grange falter.

The relegation issue is settled – that is FMGM Monarchs are relegated after losing 7-2 to Hillhead last Sunday, and Dunfermline Carnegie will have to fight for survival in the play-offs. Funnily enough, they play each other on Saturday.

Elsewhere ESM can gear up for their first Scottish Cup final by travelling away to Hillhead – who played Western in the final this time last year. The final game sees Uddingston host Kelburne with pride only at stake here.

The women`s Premiership race is coming down right to the wire between Watsonians and Edinburgh University.

A few weeks ago Watsonians were riding high at the top of the Premiership table with a perfect record, but then things began to get tricky. It started with the 1-1 draw with Wildcats, and then last weekend they fell 4-2 to Sam Judge`s charges that gave the students a three point lead.

However, on Tuesday Watsonians bounced back in style with a 14-0 win over Glasgow University in their outstanding fixture. The result means that Keith Smith`s charges are level with Edinburgh University on 40 points, but more crucially they now have a goal difference advantage of 19 over the students. And that could be decisive at the end of the day.

Keith remarked: “We played really well, we created a lot of quality chances and took many of them – we were much more clinical than in recent games. We scored in the first minute, we were four up after the first quarter and eight ahead at the interval; that kind of knocked the stuffing out of Glasgow.”

Watsonians’ scorers make familiar reading – four for Emily Dark, a hat-trick for Sarah Jamieson, doubles for Katherine Holdgate and Susan hamilton and singles for Beth Dodds, Katie Maccallum and Katie Stott.

Advantage Watsonians, but they still have to beat fifth placed GHK on Saturday to claim the title.

Can Edinburgh University score 19 goals against the Wildcats at Auchenhowie? It might need to be more if Watsonians can win on top form against GHK on Saturday.

Uni outplayed the Cats in the recent Scottish Cup semi-final and came away with a 5-0 victory. Sam Judge`s squad has been unbeaten in all competitions since the restart, including a 2-0 win over Wildcats.

The students have been popping in the goals on a regular basis with Jika Nyirenda in particularly lethal form along with Amy Brodie, Zara Kennedy, Louise Campbell, and others.

In saying that, the Wildcats have had a good season, making third place in the Premiership their own with some impressive performances, and they are at home, so this will be no pushover for the title aspirants.

The battle for the final semi-final place is tense. Clydesdale Western are on the same points as GHK, but they have a much superior goal difference. GHK are away to a title-seeking Watsonians while Clydesdale entertain Glasgow University at Titwood.

The relegation issue is now far from settled courtesy of Dundee Wanderers belated first win of the season against Uddingston last weekend. On Saturday the Taysiders visit an Inverleith side that are only two points ahead of them in a winner-take-all confrontation.

The fact is that Wanderers must win to avoid the automatic drop but the best they can hope for is the play-off spot. Last month Inverleith were 3-0 winners in Dundee with Chrissie Clark, Kirsty Cannon and Eilidh Thomson on target.

In the other games Uddingston entertain Grange and Gordonians visit Hillhead – again pride-only tussles.

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