Match Report – Saturday 8th November – Gents 1s

Uddingston 1 – Edinburgh University 5

Fresh from a convincing Thursday night win against Inverleith, and a rise to second in the premiership table, Uddingston came into this away match at Peffermill with optimism and confidence.

And while the first quarter was tight and closely-matched until right at the end, it was Edinburgh’s ruthless penalty corners which made the difference in this game.

League top scorer Jamie Golden, with his powerful whipped drag flicks, has averaged three goals a game this season. He slotted the ball in the Uddy net no less than four times in this game and the men in blue simply had no answer. Uddingston struggled to penetrate the Edinburgh D throughout the game, even with the skilful presence of Glenn Turner up front. The university team were just too fast, too strong, too well organised.

Time and again Uni found men in the corners and just inside the D with short, diagonal overheads which were trapped well and then became very dangerous attacking positions. Not since the game against Western Wildcats in week one have Uddy been quite as overwhelmed by the pace and high percentage of possession of their opponents.

There was an Uddy fightback late in the game and a goal was disallowed early in the fourth quarter – after a long discussion between the umpires – which would have brought Uddy back to 4-2. For a while, Uddy looked strong, stringing together a series of attacks.

But it was too little, too late. Solid blocking by the Edinburgh keeper and wayward shooting by the forwards kept Max Strachan’s fourth quarter strike as the only Uddy goal of the game.

Though the 5-1 scoreline suggests a deep chasm between Edinburgh University and Uddingston, this game could easily have been much closer. Some poor and unlucky umpiring decisions combined with a little bad luck exacerbated what seemed like a mismatch on paper. Uddingston are playing well, put together some passages of excellent hockey and should be proud of what they have achieved in 2025/26. Stand-out players included Angus Sinclair, Jedd Campbell, the Gardiner brothers, Max Strachan, Sean Baker, Angus Millar and Anup Valmiki. On another day, this could have been a much, much tighter game.

There is just one game to go before the split, and Uddy have dropped down to fifth on goal difference. But ESM, in fourth, are playing Western Wildcats in the last round while Uddy have a home game against St Andrews. The latter, though pointless so far in the league, have had some good periods of hockey and will be desperate to take something away from the first half of the season. A good, convincing Uddy win will push them up to a hugely impressive fourth and in a good position to fight for honours in the second half.

– Adrian Hadland

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