We were hoping for a "Girls Safe, Boys in Europe" headline after this weekend. Unfortunately, we only got half of that with the Women's 1s coming eighth but the men missing out to Grange in their play-off.
If nothing else the play-offs continue to deliver nervous moments and the girls certainly took things to the wire in their game with Gordonians. They were 4-2 up at half-time and, with GHK losing 3-2 to Kelburne, needed one more goal to ensure survival. Having missed a penalty, they then conceded a goal and it was only a penalty corner, converted as the clock counted down, that saved them on goals scored. Yesterday, they lost to CALA on running penalties so just missed out on seventh place.
The boys just didn't really ever get going in their game against Grange. This was a dour affair, characterised by by obdurate defending throughout by the Chaps and a lack of the kind of guile necessary to break down same by Western. Grange scored a deflected goal in the second half for a 1-0 win and colossal disappointment for the Western squad. This was an anti-climactic way to end what has been a very decent league season for the Men's 1s. They will now look to salvage something from the cup which begins in a fortnight.
The 2s lost 6-0 to Kelburne. Given that they fielded 5th Team centre back Michael McBride in goal this maybe wasn't too bad a result. The 3s lost 6-2 to Motherwell on Saturday and 4-2 to Hillhead yesterday. They can be delighted with how prominent their youngsters were in both games against adult opposition.
The 4s lost 2-1 on Saturday. The 5s recorded two wins: 9-2 at Titwood on Saturday and 2-1 yesterday at home to East Kilbride.