Glasgow’s impressive early season form continued on Wednesday as they inflicted a heavy defeat on Stirling, running out 25-5 winners. The result leaves Glasgow top of the league on goal difference heading into the new year, with decisive clashes with St Andrews and Edinburgh to come. Despite the emphatic score line, Glasgow will look to play better in these games along with their upcoming BUCS trophy encounter with Durham 2nds. While the 25 goals scored at home underlines the potency of Glasgow’s offence this year, in truth they were aided by a porous Stirling defence who gifted soft goals throughout.
Stirling came into the match full of confidence having held the defending BUCS 1A champions, Edinburgh, to a creditable 8-8 draw the previous week. They began the game like a team who believed an upset was possible and despite Glasgow winning the opening face, it was the visitors who struck first. A miscommunication between the Glasgow Captains, D Koyroytsaltis-Mcquire & J Bawden, allowed the Stirling player to proceed unchecked through the Glasgow half to score from range. This jolted the home side into life however, who struck back with four quick goals through B Taylor and J Sutherland. When Koyroytsaltis-Mcquire won another rare face, C Bruce collected the ball and fed Taylor to give Glasgow a 5-1 lead at the end of the 1st quarter.
Glasgow continued to score at regular intervals throughout the 2nd quarter, running up what would prove to be an unassailable lead. There were notable contributions to the score sheet from second year midfielders J Mccowan and A Hilton, adding to efforts from F Hunter, Bruce, Taylor and Sutherland. First, Mccowan dodged well from the crease to float one delicately into the top right corner, a goal made all the more impressive by the beaten Stirling defenceman wrestling him from behind. Then Hilton collected a ground ball near half way, broke down the field at pace and zipped a pass to Taylor who as ever was loitering at the back post unmarked. These eye-catching goals were interspersed however by garbage of the highest order, notably a man up goal converted by Bruce via a helpful deflection. His wayward effort was comfortably sailing wide only to catch an unwitting Stirling player’s stick and loop pitifully slowly past the despairing keeper. As the offence found goals increasingly easy to come by, the defence were largely unchallenged and completed a clean quarter for a half time score of 14-1.
Despite the margin of their lead, Glasgow were ponderous at times and frustrations began to show in the 3rd quarter. Attackman T Mottram was notable in this vein, relentlessly dodging from X in search of his first goal to no avail. After verbal dissent from teammate Bruce, he unleashed his frustration. An innocent Stirling fresher, petite in stature, was the recipient. Collecting the ball in his own half, Mottram had acres of space to run into to clear the ball up the field. Instead, he singled out his slight opponent and ran through/over him mercilessly. While he would go on to open his account, following an assist from Mccowan, it was unsurprising when he was awarded the DOTD post-match.
Glasgow continued their assault on the Stirling goal and rewarded again and again as Stirling failed to deal with the threats posed from all angles. At the other end however they began to take more chances and were duly punished with some sloppy Stirling goals. Indeed, so lacklustre was the team’s play, it was a long shortlist for DOTD. These included: T Watson (erratic clears), S Thain (loitering in attack (though this did lead to an assist)), C Bruce (vicious slashes & wards), F Hunter (woeful underhand shooting) and D Koyroytsaltis-Mcquire (getting smoked on ~93% of face offs). Despite these indiscretions, the result was never in doubt and Glasgow continued to fill their boots in attack, sharing the goals out amongst the team. Going forward, they will be pleased with the result and the intensity of their play. More of the same will be required as they embark on the greater challenges to come.
MOTM: J Mccowan & J Sutherland
DOTD: T Mottram
