Summary:
The girls were in good spirits when arriving at Tweedbank despite the long drive and missing at least 5 core players. With 9 first team players and a couple of debutants helping us out, we knew it would be a tough game with no subs against a young, fit borders side. The first 5 minutes saw us losing an goal due to an unfortunate bounce off the post. Soon after due to a spell of disorganised defending, an accurate strike went bottom corner against us. It was looking likely that our heads were going to go down and we would be trying to defend the rest of the game, however a goal from already injured Alana Willox put us back in the game. We were 2-1 down at half time but the chat was positive and we were eager to pull it back. A goal by Niamh MacFarlane as a result of an attacking corner in the second half evened the game out and it was all to play for, however borders were not going to make it easy winning an excessive amount of short corners against us and ensuring goalkeeper, Siobhan, had double a triple saves to make. Unfortunately a borders striker picked up a rebound at top D and placed it perfectly in the bottom corner.

On the hunt for an equaliser was Lauren Tanner, playing at right back, she made a great run up the side line before getting into the D and getting a shot on goal, a good save by the goalkeeper wasn’t enough though with Tanner picking up the rebound and confidently putting it past her. 5 minutes to go and borders won yet another short corner against us, unfortunately even perfect positioning from the defence couldn’t stop the ball from getting a touch off a stick, a foot and going into the back of the goal. With nothing to lose, Merlins stepped up the pace and kept the pressure on, resulting in another goal from Alana Willox in the last 2 minutes of the game. With it being a game where we were short of players and had to defend for the majority of the game, we were very happy with a 4-4 draw and keen to beat them when they make the trip to pelican park.

Player of the Match: I cannot possibly pick a player of the match for this game as I have never seen 10 outfielders work so hard for 70 minutes, so it was really a team success.

Ladies 2nd XI v Grammar
3-3
Scorers: Sophie Hill, Jenn Wright, Varada Kamate.

Summary:
Strong start from Grammar and Merlins only starting with 9 players resulted in a quick goal from Grammar within the first 10mins. The game progressed and the remaining players arrived but another goal was scored pretty quickly. Heads from Merlins went down but we kept going. A short corner was given for Merlins and captain, Caroline Fettes, had suggested that Sophie would take the straight strike. It paid off and the score was now 2-1. Shortly before the half time whistle and a player unmarked in the D resulted in another goal from Grammar to finish the first half 3-1. Caroline quickly changed some positions in the team and gave a positive team talk, with help from team manager for the day Sheila Graham, before the second half resumed. Back to 11 players Merlins had some great passing up in the opposition half and a goal was scored by Jenn Wright. Not long after another goal was scored by Varada Kamate to even the score to 3 -3. Merlins held off numerous short corners and the game finished as a draw.

Player of the match: Abi Byrne.

Ladies 3rd XI v Bon Accord 2
2-0 loss.

Summary:
A very young team, with a few oldies thrown in, were faced with a tough opposition on the sand based pitch at Cults. Many of the youngsters are new to ladies hockey and were playing their first game for Merlins, whilst it was allegedly ‘scary’ for them to come up against the experience of the Bon Accord they put up a great fight and played some fantastic hockey. They lost a goal early in the first half and only lost their second goal in the last play of the game; this had a lot to do with the great goalkeeping skills from Ailsa Phimister who decided to put the pads on for the first time. However the whole team did well in trying new things and playing a structure which was different from school hockey which resulted in a Bon Accord struggling to get the ball through the sea of yellow.

Coaches (me) player of the match – Emma Young, her defending and marking throughout the game was exceptional for someone who had never played a ladies game before

Men’s weekend update – match reports to follow:

M1 v GCW (2-1 win to Gordonians)
M2 v AU3 (11-0 win to Gordonians)
M3 no fixture
M4 v Aberdeenshire South (result TBC)
M5 v GC5 (3-1 win to Gordonians)