3-3: M1s vs Dundee Wanderers (Premiership) - 12/03/2022
An away game in Dundee called for some advanced planning Thursday night, with the team keen to mitigate rising fuel costs and get the social side of the day started early with a bit of car-pooling (and hot tip here: apparently you can claim expenses when you do this?! What other secrets are the Club keeping from us?) [Editors note: None 😊]. Being a team of competent grown-ups, this planning was of course faultless and there was no last-minute messaging Saturday morning seeking answers, assistance or clarifications.
To the match. The 1st XI have done well to come back from going down to early goals since the restart, though those early concessions have never really been the game plan. So, no more of that please…
A bit of opening end-to-end action but things looked ok for the men (today) in yellow, with a couple of early balls flashed in from the right but not quite getting the inside-circle touch needed. Unfortunately, the reason for one of these was Andrew Black pulling up with a hamstring issue as he extended to get to the far post. An expected three-man bench had already been cut to two with Andy Duke suffering from bruised ribs: the after-effects of his horror tackle against Glasgow Uni the previous week. And with Blackie out and less than 10 minutes played, here we were, down to just-
1-0 Wanderers. A ball in from the right and a physical forward who can bang in goals if given a chance? If only we’d known about and discussed how to counteract this pre-game. Oh dear, we’ll have to do it the hard way again. Might be trying our luck now.
Another attack down the right, Yan Adams cuts inside to hit a reverse with plenty of space – sideboard. Graeme Campbell watches on and, as did Thanos ahead of the Most Ambitious Crossover Event in Cinematic History, mutters to himself, “fine, I’ll do it myself”. For a few minutes later there he goes, also down the right, beating two or three players as he cuts inside and makes no mistake with his reverse hit. 1-1.
From here the stage is set. We know what’s to come. And sure enough, in the quarters that follow, captain Fraser Ward first finishes off a slick corner move to make it 2-1, before later bagging his brace (and his 5th goal in two games) with a mean and rising strike from the left of the circle. 3-1. The Comeback Kings have done it again. Let’s go home.
Except there’s still another quarter to play. But that’s ok – they’ve just received a 10-minute yellow card for a clumsy, dangerous tackle on Cammy Butler. A great opportunity for us to consolidate the lead and –
2-3. That big forward of theirs again. Should probably take that as a final warning. We’re still ahead though and getting chances ourselves, so let’s just do as we’ve asked – get the ball forward on the right wing – and we should be ok.
Turnover on the left – they have the attack. We get it back. No problem. Let’s just do as we’ve been asked. Ball rolls off the left sideline. They have the attack. Making things a bit hard for ourselves now. Was this in the game plan? We win a foul on the left wing. Just. What were we supposed to be doing?
Grant MacMillian has the ball. Last man. Plays a late, risky pass through the pressing attacker which catches his feet. “Grant, please be careful with that and opt for a safer option next time”, coach Keith Joss requests calmly from the sideline. Keith is calm. His blood pressure is healthy, and nothing is likely to adversely impact it.
3-3. A ball straight into the circle from just outside the 25. Probably should have had a man on the line-to-goal. But at least it wasn’t that that fella who scored the previous goals being allowed to pick-it up and shoot again – we’ll have marked him out of the game by now. Wait. Who was it? Oh. I see. Is… is Keith ok?
We have our chances to win the game, and perhaps we should. But we should never be in this position now, drawing again – capitulating like PSG in a Champions League knockout tie. A few loose pick-ups in the circle though, a few poor decisions, and it seems it’s our day to taste the comeback we’ve been inflicting on others. One last corner opportunity to win goes awry, and that is that. Having shown excellent resilience to come from behind in so many games recently, it seems the team now has to build a bit of grit and composure when in winning positions – a different trait entirely.
Before we go, a special shout out to stand-in keeper Iestyn Rhys Howorth, whose great performance in goal earned him the share of MoM votes for the day.
DoD: Andrew Black
Match report: Yan Adams