Dumfries 2’s took on table toppers Clydesdale 5’s at the King George V last Saturday expecting a tough game as always against the well-crafted blend of youth and experience throughout the team.

The match started briskly and with the visitors more quickly into their stride it was the Dumfries defence who found themselves under a lot of pressure. Clydesdale used both wings to good effect as well as a solid drive down the middle of the pitch to keep possession well and carved out numerous opportunities to open the scoring but the Dumfries keeper kept them at bay with a string of saves to prevent the opening goal and on the one occasion the ball was slipped past the keeper, Captain Redman made a superb goal line clearance to come to his rescue. Dumfries gradually started to make some headway against the visitors and made several promising breaks to bring the Clydesdale defence into action who restricted their chances, although the keeper did have to make one clearance from a Kershaw shot. Clydesdale then came back at Dumfries following several personnel changes and the pressure started to build on the home defence until a clever turn in the D and deft flick from one of the young Clydesdale forwards opened the scoring prior to the halftime whistle.Turning round at halftime with further words of encouragement from the senior players in their ranks, the Dumfries youngsters continued to play well but Clydesdale with their experience maintained the pressure on the home side trying to increase their lead whenever the opportunity arose. This pressure eventually paid off after a scramble in the Dumfries D saw the ball slipped home to double the visitors lead. Thankfully the Dumfries heads didn’t drop and allow Clydesdale to press home their advantage of possession as Dumfries were limited to several quick turnovers to take play towards the visitors defence but they didn’t create any goalscoring chances from these. Clydesdale however did and they thought they had scored a third goal towards the end of the half only to see it disallowed for an infringement picked up by the umpire before they had a chance to celebrate it.As such the game ended in a narrow 2-0 defeat for the home side. This was a credit to the endeavours of the Dumfries outfield players throughout the game, well backed up by the performance of their keeper who certainly saw much more of the ball than his two counterparts in the Clydesdale team.

Grateful thanks from both teams involved to Scott Marshall and Georgia Marshall for umpiring the game.

Young Player of the Match award went to Liam Mills

Dumfries Hockey Club

Match Preview

Match details

Match date

Push back

Meet time

Instructions

Team Sponsors