Top rung of women`s Premiership now underway

This weekend sees the restart of the upper pool in the women`s Premiership for most of the teams. So perhaps best to consider where we left off in November and any progress since then.

It has the appearance of a two horse race for the Premiership title between top side Watsonians who have a perfect record after eleven games and Clydesdale Western who are only three points adrift. GHK have been in action over the last two weeks with back to back victories and currently occupy third spot, but five points behind Clydesdale and with two more games played. GHK are very much involved in the quest for a top four spot, the route to the play-offs and European places, but so also are Edinburgh University, St Andrews University along with Western Wildcats who are a bit behind.

The champions start off the campaign at home to GHK, a side they beat 4-2 in the early part of the season.   But since then the Glasgow side got its revenge by knocking Watsonians out of the Scottish Cup 6-5 on penalties after a 1-1 draw. Perhaps not the easiest of fixtures for Keith Smith`s charges, after a disappointing start with four straight defeats GHK have been on an impressive unbeaten run which has taken them up to third in the table.

But then again Watsonians have yet to lose any points at all in the Premiership – you can`t get better than that.

Clydesdale are at home to Wildcats and they won the earlier clash 5-0 with Jen Eadie getting a hat-trick and the other goals coming from Jika Nyirenda and Heather Howie. Clydesdale`s goals have been emanating from so many sources and they will hope to have too much firepower for the Cats. The Auchenhowie side had an up and down end to the first part of the season with a win, a defeat and three draws, although they did manage to force their way into the top six competition.

A crucial fixture in the race for a top four spot is the all-university clash between St Andrews and Edinburgh. At the moment St Andrews are three points behind their rivals, but with a game more played, and you have to think they need to win to stay in contention. Back in November it ended in a 2-2 draw…so this could be a close encounter again. Edinburgh recorded one win in their closing five games before the winter break.

There seems no respite for either Aberdeen University or Hillhead at the bottom of the lower six, both are at home on Saturday against Uddingston and Glasgow University respectively, and will need to start picking up points to have any chance of safety.  Realistically Inverleith seem the only side still vulnerable, but they are still five points ahead of Hillhead despite losing out to Uddingston last Saturday. They play Grange on Saturday and last time out they lost 3-0.

The top of the men`s Premiership continues to be extremely tight with only two points separating the top three.

Edinburgh University under the guidance of Neil Allan continue to occupy pole position, but they had to work for their money last weekend against a stubborn Uddingston side and relied in the end on the penalty corner expertise of Jamie Golden to finally secure the three points. The students travel across the city to Grange on Saturday, the side they beat 2-1 in the Scottish Cup last Sunday, and again it was Jamie Golden who did the damage.

Watsonians v Western Wildcats looks the pick of the card – that is 2nd v 3rd. Western Wildcats started off the second half of the campaign with a win over Grange while Watsonians stumbled a little drawing with ESM Lions.  Back in November it was a ding-dong clash – Charlie Jack opened for Watsonians, then Adam MacKenzie and Fraser Moran twice put Wildcats 3-1 in front, and in the closing minutes Tommy Orr and then Gabe Tenner with an overtime penalty corner concluded proceedings for a three all draw. There is no reason why Saturday`s clash cannot be as close, and exciting.

Fourth placed Uddingston dropped back a bit after losing out to the Edinburgh students and now travel to an ESM side that did well to share the points with Watsonians last Saturday.  They moved to within two points of the Lanarkshire outfit. So this could be an intriguing contest for that coveted fourth place between the two sides. An Uddingston win would clearly give them the advantage while a Lions victory would put it back into the melting pot. The earlier clash ended 1-1 with goals from Max Strachan for Uddy with Cameron Ede replying for the Lions.

The talk of the steamie in the lower echelons is, can St Andrews University after two straight wins over Hillhead and Dundee Wanderers escape the drop? The students are now only a point away from Wanderers and two from Inverleith – it`s very doable. On Saturday they are at home to Clydesdale who themselves have taken four points from their last couple of games.  So this could be a sterner test of the students` revival.

Interestingly Wanderers and Inverleith meet on Tayside in what is crucial for survival given that only one point separates the two clubs.  The loser here descends further into the relegation mire.

It looks like the final game between Hillhead and Grove Menzieshill is for the top of the bottom six – at the moment the former lead by two points.   And only recently the former got the better of the Taysiders by 2-1 in the Scottish Cup, so this could be close.

 

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