Wildcats Pull Clear, Uddingston Hold the Champions: Scottish Premiership Round-Up

Scotland’s top flight isn’t waiting for anyone. Six men’s games on Saturday, goals at both ends of the table, and by the end of it Western Wildcats had opened a gap at the top while the champions were left arguing with a penalty corner that never went in.

Uddingston 1-1 Edinburgh University: the champions came this close

This was the top-of-the-table game, at Bothwell Castle, and it finished level. Edinburgh University, the defending champions, had the better of it for long spells but were playing with seven changes from the side that had been in Euro Hockey League action, and it showed in the final quarter.

Sam Hunt put the students ahead from a penalty corner. Jedd Campbell levelled for Uddingston in the last quarter, also from a set piece. Then came the finish: Edinburgh won a penalty corner after the hooter, got it re-awarded, and still couldn’t force it in. Uddy held out.

Uddingston stay unbeaten, and their coach Gordon Moore admitted the dressing-room feeling was split: disappointed not to win it, happy enough to still have that zero in the defeats column. Edinburgh’s Martin Beckford was blunt about his reshuffled side having most of the play and not finishing the job. Both are probably right.

Wildcats 6-0 Grove Menzieshill: a rout with a family feel

Western Wildcats took full advantage. They beat Grove Menzieshill 6-0 to consolidate top spot, and the Moran brothers ran the show. Cammy Moran scored twice in three minutes in the first half, Ben McClellan and Adam Mackenzie added goals after the break, and Fraser Moran then scored twice in two minutes of his own. Six goals, none of them scrappy, and a statement from Auchenhowie’s side: the gap at the top is theirs to lose now.

A hat-trick of hat-tricks

Watsonians beat Clydesdale 3-1 at home, and all three Watsonians goals came from one stick. Charlie Jack’s hat-trick was his third hat-trick in a row, which is the kind of run that gets you marked out of games, except nobody has managed it yet. Luke Bannerman replied for Clydesdale, who just about hang on to a top-six place. Watsonians sit third with a game in hand, and with Jack in this form they’re the side nobody wants next.

Elsewhere, ESM Lions kept climbing quietly, beating Kelburne 2-0 with second-half goals from Jamie Hogarth and Jack Collister after a goalless first half. Inverleith won 4-1 at Dunfermline Carnegie, Will James, Stuart Hatton, Mati Ruiz and Kyle Taylor scoring, Ollie Hobdell with the home side’s consolation.

The day’s other draw was the wildest game of the six. Hillhead and Grange finished 3-3: Kyle Reid put Grange ahead, Euan Menzies levelled from a corner, Albert Rowling restored Grange’s lead, Menzies and Fraser Ward scored two more Hillhead corners to flip it 3-2, and Reid equalised again with four minutes left. It’s Grange’s first point of the season, and Hillhead’s third draw. Both sides will feel they should have won it, which usually means a draw was about right.

Men’s scores: Uddingston 1-1 Edinburgh University; Grove Menzieshill 0-6 Western Wildcats; Watsonians 3-1 Clydesdale; ESM Lions 2-0 Kelburne; Dunfermline Carnegie 1-4 Inverleith; Hillhead 3-3 Grange.

The women’s top two are running away with it

Briefly, because the pattern matters: Watsonians and Clydesdale Western have opened a real gap in the Women’s Premiership. Watsonians beat Edinburgh University 7-0, Sarah Jamieson scoring twice, and Clydesdale Western put twelve goals past Glasgow University, with hat-tricks for Jenny Eadie and Ciara Forgie. Grange and GHK drew 1-1, St Andrews University beat Hillhead 2-0, and Western Wildcats picked up their first point in a 1-1 draw with Uddingston.