Our first teams each have big games this Saturday with the girls hosting Edinburgh University and the boys away to Clydesdale. Both games are scheduled for your dentist's favourite time (1430).
Harry has set the Men's 1st Team the target of winning their first three games after the winter break as part of the bigger goal to secure a top-three spot thus avoiding Kelburne in the play-off semis. "We were slow in starting last week against Wanderers but once we got going we played well and I was especially pleased with Luke Cranney's performance and his goal which was sensational," he said. "The main thing is that we won the game and we can look forward to this Saturday with three points gained. Clydesdale are a good side and a tough proposition, especially at Titwood, and we will give them the respect they are due. That said, we have beaten them twice already this season and are confident we can do so again. We don't go in to games fearing the opposition."
If Clydesdale are a tough proposition at Titwood then Edinburgh University are a tough proposition anywhere. They have played 13 games this season and won all of them, scoring 74 goals and conceding a miserly eight. Wildcats were beaten 5-0 in the capital earlier this season and the visitors are heavy favourites for this fixture. Our girls' record against the top teams is good, though, and the fact that there is little pressure on them can work to their advantage, especially in a home game.
The Men's 2s welcome a couple of old faces for their game at home to Rottenrow (1130). Vishal Marwaha picks up a stick again after retiring from the 1st Team and will add plenty to a second team who struggle with consistency. We are particularly pleased to welcome Robin Young back from his English sabbatical. Bob was a fixture in the 2s (as well as doing sterling work for the 1s) for years before his professional life took him south and they will benefit greatly from having him back. As far as the game goes, an out of sorts Western lost the corresponding fixture 4-1 back in October but we think they should have enough to win this time. You heard it here first.
And so to the 3s. Yet another win last week kept their increasingly improbable winning streak going. This week they are at Uddingston (1230) in what will be another tough game Western will aim to win by dint of experience, stubbornness and brutal pragmatism. Dave Whiting is back in goal following his heroics standing in for the 1s and Khalid Bashir appears to have made it back from his skiing holiday in one piece which will return an element of much needed composure to the back four. Can they win for the fourteenth time in a row? Don't bet against it. Don't bet on it either come to that, but definitely don't bet against it.
The 4s have had a deeply frustrating 2015 so far. Several games have been called off what with one thing and another and the one game they did play resulted in a 7-1 shellacking down in Ayr. They are at home to Glasgow University 3s this Saturday (1300) and will feel that a win is very achievable. Western beat the students in a good game back in the Autumn and are several places above them in the Division 2 table. Moreover, several of the boys will have benefitted from runouts for the 2s and 3s last Saturday and Euan is confident that his youngsters will perform. On Sunday he takes the U16s to Aberdeen for the next stage of the Scottish Cup so this game also serves as a warm up for the boys' participation in the national competition.
The 5s have a decent looking mix of old and young for their trip to Helensburgh (1215). New captain Calum Beedie took great heart from the performance in their 2-0 defeat to Rottenrow last week and will be hopeful of taking something more tangible from this one.
The Women's 2s are at Jordanhill School to play Hillhead (1230) while the 3s are at Stepps.