Match Report for Scotland League Aberdeen & Stirling
This was the second round of the Scotland league and considering that we had never played together as a team before St Andrews did pretty well to beat Stirling 5-0 and Aberdeen 4-0.
When we arrived we looked upon the arena with dismay; it looked like a clay pit! Deeply churned with intermittent standing water we wondered if the ball would move at all. Thom reassured us it would be fine and so with Ed Bellamy on his favourite pony alongside the more experienced Emilie Bagnall and Lilian Schiffer we started by taking on Stirling.
After winning the line out, the ball spent most of the time at the opposition's end of the arena. Despite the poor surface we plugged away at it and were soon rewarded with several goals. Ed Bellamy's propensity to foul about every other minute was thankfully matched by Stirling's rather loose penalty shooting skills and they failed to score a single goal against us. The play was often slow and scrappy but with the combination of Emilie's riding off skills and Lilian's marking, Stirling were simply not getting away from us.
Aberdeen were next and we started almost immediately after entering the pitch. By now the ground was even worse and the ball rarely travelled far. However our earlier determination had not departed us and we were soon scoring away. A rather lucky, but still convincing goal from a 25 yard penalty by Ed Bellamy sealed the final score and we departed victorious!
As we sped down the A91 to the sound of Kings of Leon we reflected on all things horsey; discussing our own mounts at home and the various merits of the many different riding disciplines we had competed in. We returned to St Andrews tired but pleased with ourselves.
Team: Ed Bellamy, Emilie Bagnall, Lilian Schiffer
(written by Ed Bellamy)