This weekend`s action is confined largely to the men`s Premiership – so a quick review of the status after three games.
At the top three teams – Watsonians, ESM Lions and Grange – sit on maximum points. At the other end another four sides – Clydesdale, Hillhead, Grove Menzieshill and St Andrews University have still to get off the mark. And the other competitors occupy the middle ground.
But pride of place should probably go to ESM Lions who have roared into second place in the table with a hat-trick of victories – not bad at all for a side with only a few seasons in the top flight. Its a team success but Cameron Ede`s six goals have certainly been a feature.
Since coming into the Premiership for the first time ESM have shown steady development, and at the end of last season finished in the top six. Certainly the Edinburgh side have yet to face the big guns of the competition, and that will be a real test, but three wins out of three against the sides facing them is the perfect start.
So what does manager Ross Young have to say on the matter.
“The start to the season has been good. The boys have worked hard in pre-season and have trained and played well. But we all know it’s a long, tough season, so we aren’t getting carried away with it all and we are now just concentrating on the game against Dundee Wanderers on Saturday which will be a tough encounter against a good hockey side.”
Ross elaborated further.
“We’ve had some new faces joining the playing squad and the way they have integrated with the existing group of lads has been great to see. We have a good group of boys who play hockey in the right way and do it with a smile on their face.”
On the season`s targets Ross said: “This season, we want to continue to build on the progress that the squad made in the past couple of seasons. Ideally we want to emulate what we achieved last season and be in the top six at Christmas. The boys are aware we have to continue to work hard in training and play to the best of our abilities of we want to do that.”
It`s Dundee Wanderers on Tayside on Saturday – that could be a tester of the Lions resolve.
However, something will have to give at the top with Watsonians entertaining Grange in an Edinburgh derby. Last time out Watsonians came out on top 2-0 and went on to qualify for Europe for the first time.
Looking solely at statistics Sam Judge`s charges have been the more impressive, three comfortable victories scoring 16 and conceding only one – pretty impressive. And they don`t rely on a couple of strikers, the goals are spread out among several different players.
In contrast, Grange have certainly also collected the nine points but their victories have been less impressive. And it would appear that they are in somewhat of a transition stage having lost several key players and are testing out some talented teenagers. – and to some effect it has to be said.
So what about the chasing pack. Western Wildcats lurk two points behind the top three and are away to a Hillhead side that have yet to get a point on the board. It is difficult to see the Wildcats having their claws blunted with Fraser Moran, Rob Harwood and Iain McFadden is such fine scoring form.
Edinburgh University seem to have hit the ground running with a stirring draw against Wildcats and a nine goal win over Hillhead, and they head to Inverleith for another Capital derby. There always has been a lot of talent in the students ranks, but the addition of Jamie Golden has given that extra punch…and that could be too much for Inverleith.
The other side to make an impact is Uddingston – after heavily losing their opening game to Wildcats the Lanarkshire side followed up with wins over Hillhead and Grove Menzieshill to move into the top six – all the goals have come from Anup Valmiki and Max Strachan. Coach Tom Hyndman will be looking to continue the winning trend at Clydesdale, but that could be a challenge despite the Dale`s poor start.
Finally, both Menzieshill and St Andrews University remain pointless but something will change here as they clash on Tayside on Thursday evening. Goals have been at a premium here – only one between them – so perhaps not a high scoring affair in prospect.
THURSDAY EVENING
And something did change on Thursday evening, Grove Menzieshill moved off the bottom rungs with a comfortable 5-1 win over St Andrews University on Tayside, only that left the students at the foot…a tough start for the league`s newcomers.
The catalyst was a hat-trick of penalty corners for Menzieshill`s John Donald and there were also tidy finishes for Connor Chapman and Ptolemy Goad, although the students did record their first goal of the campaign through Jacob Anderson.
There is no women`s Premiership card this weekend but St Andrews and Aberdeen Universities have elected to play their outstanding fixture at the home of golf. The home side must rank as favourites for this one, they have now had several years in the top flight and have started this campaign with a convincing win over Glasgow and a promising draw with Wildcats. In contrast, Aberdeen are still an unknown quantity, they have only played one fixture and that was a 5-1 defeat to Wildcats.
