24th November 2009
Wales 60's narrowly lose out in Scottish double-header
Over the past two weekends, Wales Dros Chwe Deg have had to learn to adjust to whatever the weather throws at us from the glorious blue skies of Sunday, 15 November at Lilleshall in Shropshire to the rain, sleet and wind of Largs on the west coast of Scotland this weekend, 21-22 November.
We didn't manage to emulate the excellent victory in Lilleshall (1-0 to Wales against England LX(A), scorer Martin Kavanagh), achieving on this occasion a scoreless draw on the Saturday in the first match against the Scots and going down to a 1-0 defeat on the Sunday - the stalemate being broken by a single successfully converted Scots short corner.
Most of the time over the two matches Wales comfortably controlled proceedings in both defence and midfield. We created a number of chances and on another day we could have come away from both games as comfortable winners. Traditionally against Scotland we have always taken our chances in front of goal but on this occasion we lacked our usual composure, with at least four separate players spurning good opportunities to score. As a result of these wasted chances, it was inevitable that Scotland would create some of their own and we were eventually punished on two occasions. Firstly, in the final minute of the Saturday match, we switched off our concentration and tight marking at the back and conceded a short corner. The whistle blew for full time and, in the resulting melee after the short corner had been taken, we conceded a penalty flick. The Scots, undeservedly, therefore had a chance to win the match at the last moment but Glyn Thomas brought off a superb save to keep the match scoreless.
The second Scottish opportunity came at the beginning of the second half in the Sunday match. The first half had belonged to Wales in terms of possession with us playing the better and more skilful hockey: yet again, though, it was just the final precision in front of goal that was lacking. At the start of the second half the Scots made a tactical change, playing with just three defenders and adding an extra player to the right hand side of their midfield. Wales were slow to adjust to the revised Scottish formation and for the first time in the match we found ourselves under some pressure. Tony Nicholas, playing at left back, went into a tackle and came away cleanly with the ball but the umpire judged an offence had been committed and gave a short corner to the opposition. The Scots converted it and we found ourselves 1-0 down. Wales remained resolute for the rest of the half and were pressing strongly in the final quarter, gaining a succession of short corners but were not being able to gain the all-important equalising goal.
An overall analysis then for the weekend would be that we can receive plaudits for playing some nice hockey and being in control for most of the two matches but that such control necessarily has to be translated into results.
The Team: Glyn Thomas, Roger Willis, Martin Kavanagh, Ben Johnson, Tony Nicholas and Richard Harbottle played in all three matches over the two weekends. Peter Thomas, Steve Macintosh, Chris Parry, Bryan Simpson, Dave Ferguson and Chris Harness played at Lilleshall; and Peter Havlin, Chris Hills, Dave Maas, Brian Minney, Keith Davies, Ernie Brittain Dodd and Glynne Best played at Largs. Chris Harness was the manager in Scotland.
Only six of the Lilleshall team were also available for Largs so, over the course of the two weekends, Wales fielded nineteen players. With nine further players from Amstelveen not being available for various reasons, it meant that over the previous three tournaments we have been able to draw on a total squad of 28 players, a strength in depth which augurs well for 2010.
Roger Willis
Captain Wales over 60s
