1-2: M1s vs Clydesdale (Friendly)
Scorers: Jackson Corry-Duff (PC)
DoD: Yan Adams: MoM: Tom Cole
Friendly number two of the season represented a teaser for the season opener against Clydesdale, and the result showed that that first game will be just as much of a battle as last season, with high stakes and little margin for error.
Fraser Ward showed poor leadership from the outset, our captain arriving late having left his hockey shoes at home. Shocking, wrong and appalling, coach Yan Adams commented, before realising he too had left his shoes (and shin pads) sitting blissfully unaware of their intended use in his living room.
Within 10 minutes a break resulted in a short corner, which Jackson Corry-Duff buried bottom left at the first time of asking. One corner, one goal - stats the Olympic nations can only dream of.
More break-aways went begging, with false-9 Ward unable to repeat his tomahawk finish from last weekend (side netting this time), Murray Ross being closed down quickly, and Joe Drake uninterested to get on the board for his new club, opting instead to slap way over the crossbar when uncontested at the far post. Determined not to let Corry-Duff pull away from him in the corner conversion stakes, Captain Ward called the next one for himself, and potentially suggested Corry-Duff head back to the half-way line, but who knows. Corner saved.
Further back, Tom Cole relished a new more defensive role that prevented him from adding to the poor finishing up front, sweeping up time and again, though he did give away a corner with a customary reverse-stick chop - as his indoor teammates know well: there’s one every game.
1-0 to the good guys at half time, but this was reduced to 1-1 in the 3rd quarter as Clydesdale finished off a scrappy corner.
The second half was much of the same, with good pressing from Hillhead creating opportunities that went unconverted: Drake again shooting wide, this time from short range - a back-post pass, he insisted.
As is customary, with 8 mins or so to go, Clydesdale pulled their keeper in search of another goal, always keen to keep the 7 or so strong-crowd entertained. Matt Carder - absent from the game - surely felt something in the wind at this moment - these are the moments he lives for. Hillhead would surely not miss Carder though, with Ewan Campbell and Ross both on hand to convert chances into an empty goal in the circle. That must be in another timeline though, as Ross hit wide under pressure, and Campbell did the same - just not under pressure - though his angle was tight, an easy push would surely have sufficed with noone between him and the goal, and seen the game to bed at 2-1.
Instead, at the other end, another “there’s one every match” moment, this time the “Andy Sinclair Big Rig” foul against, with Adams the obvious candidate in Sincy’s absence, conceding a corner for holding his ground outside the circle. Two corners either side of a scuppered reverse-stick clearnace later, Dale went 2-1 up to claim the game.
So, finishing the key thing to improve on for Hillhead, who will go into that first game knowing that victory or loss will depend on them, not the opposition.
