Mens 1 Vs Western

This week the Dundee Wanderers played host to top of the league team Western Wildcats. They went into the game clear underdogs, as their inconsistency in previous weeks has cost them valuable points, so any points on the board from this game would be a magnificent result. They were coming off a solid win in the cup the week before, so confidence and team spirit was high.

The match started at a very high pace, with a bundle of energy shown by the home team in particular. They dominated play through their superior fitness levels and solid link up play, creating scoring chances at will with a constantly changing front three wreaking havoc for the Western defence. The first goal deservedly came for the home side as Ross Glashan made a superb run towards goal, taking the ball past two defenders, only to be brought down by a challenge from the keeper, which resulted in a penalty. Allan Law had no difficulty firing that into the Western net. Their dominance continued, and they scored another courtesy of a Law flick from a short corner, to put them 2-0 ahead at half-time. A two goal lead can be flimsy though, so they sought more in the second period.

They did just that soon after the whistle blew for the restart. Glashan took the ball along the baseline and knocked it against a Western foot to give them a short corner, which Law converted again to snatch his hat-trick and put them three ahead. Wanderers went off the boil slightly, but still held on fairly comfortably to their three goal lead for a period. This changed when they started slipping up due to bad communication, and Western capitalised on their slackness to pull one back, when a striker pulled away from his man to put it high past Paul Johnstone. Disaster then struck as the visitors were awarded two penalties in the space of five minutes, and although both could be said to be hard on the Dundee side, Western had no qualms about putting them into the Wanderers net, to pull level. This only served to spur the Wanderers on to greater heights however. They got back on track with more play reminiscent of the first half, and went ahead once more as two of the younger members of the team, Michael McKenzie and Ross Glashan, linked up well to play the ball around the keeper for Michael to slot into an empty goal. They then very nearly had a fifth straight after, as Jack Fullerton played Glashan in for a one-on-one with the Western keeper only to see his shot saved by the tip of his glove. Western then piled on the pressure, interrupted by a few Wanderers counter attacks which were unsuccessful, but to no avail, as the home team’s defence dealt with all attacks, and the game finished 4-3 to the Wanderers, an excellent result, which will send out a message to the other teams in the league. .