Mayhem in May ‪#‎AAW2‬ v Waverley Old Boys – Nil – 2 – #katchat

Wednesday night saw the Dunbar girls make the trek to Hensley Stadium to take on Waverley Old Boys. As a newcomer to the ESFA scene, I didn’t know what to expect. Would they be old? Would they be boys? Disappointingly, they were neither. Just your regular looking amateur female football team.

The first half was relatively even-stevens. Both teams struggled to settle on the exceedingly vast plains of Hensley’s artificial turf. Exceedingly vast, as in it continued to get bigger the longer the game went on. The midfield were left scared, confused and lonely. Unlike our familiar home pitch of NCIE, where a hop, skip and jump will escort you from one penalty box to the other, it seemed that no matter how much we ran, we were still a million miles away from play. Luckily, as per usual our defense was in ship shape form and all over it it like seagulls at a tip. Tina had an absolute blinder in centre back with some big tackles, big kicks and big plays that made sure our Jo was as safe as houses in goal.

Coach Lisa took strategic inspiration from Frozen and drilled some tactics into the team over halftime, “control the ball and let it go”. Let it Go, Let it Goooooo! Just like Elsa and Anna we faced the winter weather together and regained control of the match. We managed to bridge the gigantic artificial-turf gap between the ranks and started pressing hard and high. Goal chances were in abundance and shots rained down upon the Waverley goal, but unfortunately our white line fever was continually denied.

Despite our efforts, Waverley were certainly not steamrolled aside and a break in our offense saw Waverley convert a corner. Momentarily our heads dropped, but not to be easily disposed of we continued to press and were inches away from equalising during a penalty box ping-pong scramble. Again we were denied. Luck was definitely not on our side. Controversy and calamity engulfed the game as what can only be described as a blatant foul against goalkeeper Jo Castillo. The ref was as full of it as Centrelink on payday and let play continue, giving Waverley an open goal and bringing the score to two-nil.

Yes we confirmed that Waverley Old Boys were not old, nor boys, they were however very fast and very physical. Ultimately an unlucky and disappointing result, it was a tough and rough game that could have gone either way. Depleted in points on the table but definitely not in spirit, Dunbar Rovers AAW2 take to the field on Sunday against third place Maccabi which will certainly be a thriller!