Glasgow University Men’s 1st team travelled up to Aberdeen this week in good spirits following their positive performances in recent weeks. Glasgow started the game at break neck speed with vice-captain J Bawden collecting the ground ball from the opening face, hurtling down the field and feeding attackman B Taylor who had inexplicably been left unmarked on the crease. Glasgow didn’t let up continuing to win the possession from face offs and began enterprising attacks, C Bruce twice seeing shots go wide. The 2nd was coming through and once again B Taylor was at the heart of it, dodging well to feed T Mottram for a cool finish. This stirred Aberdeen into life and they took the ball into Glasgow’s half and set up a concerted period of attack. Despite their possession, Glasgow would score next having won the ball and cleared at lightning speed to their incisive attack. A Hilton (playing his first BUCS game in defence) produced his first of many timely interventions in the game, sliding aggressively to cause Aberdeen to fumble the ball. The ground ball was collected by S Thain who ran it up the field and fed B Taylor who neglected to return the favour and instead fed midfielder J Sutherland who duly swept home for 3-0. A poor 1st quarter for Aberdeen was compounded by conceding a late 4th goal. Glasgow Captain D Koyroytsaltis-Mcquire was under pressure in his own half and launched an optimistic hail-mary pass into Aberdeen’s territory, only to see it collected by B Taylor in front of a dozy Aberdeen defender and feed T Mottram once more for another predatory finish.
Into the 2nd quarter Glasgow continued to put their opponents to the sword, beating them for hustle and intensity to scoop up possession any time the ball hit the floor. The goals continued to come with C Bruce making up for earlier misses and D Koyroytsaltis-Mcquire converting after a clinical man-up play. Aberdeen were chasing the game and keen to shoot on sight keeping T Watson busy in goal. But in truth they rarely threatened and two further goals from B Taylor gave Glasgow the half-time lead of 8-0 their play deserved.
If Aberdeen had hoped for some respite after the break, there was more crushing disappointment in store. Attackman M Mckay scored with a composed underhand finish that trickled past the helpless goalkeeper. It was a surprise to see the bouncing ball favouring M Mckay as until this point he had endured a torturous afternoon when the ball was on the floor, ensuring his position as the early favourite for the Euan Rankin GB Award. Play became scrappy from then on, perhaps initiated by a flash point as Mottram and an Aberdeen midfielder were sent off for trading slashes. The fragmented play lead to more goals, this time with Aberdeen contributing to the scoresheet, converting on a man-up play after miscommunication in the Glasgow defence. Glasgow were not rattled though and scored their tenth as Taylor cheekily flicked the ball through his legs on the rebound from Bruce’s shot which pinged the post.
Into the 4th quarter the physicality of the game continued with the Glasgow defence putting in some robust hits through Hilton and Thain. The defence was playing with assurance that belayed their inexperience as Hilton and A Mcmorris impressed throughout the game. Watson in goal was also having an excellent game and his distribution following saves set up several of Glasgow’s best attacks. Despite a fantastic reaction save from Watson, Aberdeen did score a 2nd as they scooped up the loose ball on crease to score. This was as good as it got for them though as their deficiencies at both ends of the field were highlighted in the final exchanges. Glasgow continued to score at will whilst their defence continued to impress, repelling Aberdeen despite being double man-down as the game ended 13-2.
MOTM: A Hilton and B Taylor
DOTD: M Mckay