Dunfermline Carnegie Hockey Club - Scotland's Largest Hockey Club

MEN'S 7TH TEAM MATCH REPORTS

Sat 27th October - Inverleith Juniors 8-1 Dunfermline Carnegie VII

Sorry, but no full match report has been received for this match.

Scorer: No Notification

Sat 20th October - Dunfermline Carnegie VII 2-0 Edinburgh Colts

Theoretically a squad of 14 for this one though Dave McIntosh spent most of the game in the car park leading to the Forth Bridge . It was a game we dominated from the start despite play moving briskly from end to end but their attacks were largely nullified before they got any effective shots away. On 14 minutes a four-pass move from our ‘D’ ended up on the stick of Duncan Ruzzak on our right wing just over their 25. He rounded their left back and drove into the ‘D’ at a fairly acute angle and their ‘keeper, thinking this wee boy must surely cross the ball, he took a step out to intercept and Duncan promptly crashed the ball between ‘keeper and post. Despite several more chances we reached H.T. with just a 1 – 0 lead.

Second half was very similar to the first with both sides squandering good chances, then “Dita Dave” appeared with 16 minutes to go. His introduction brought us a goal within five minutes but not due to any direct involvement by him but because, as usual, he ran all over our forward line (usually going the wrong way) dragging markers with him. This second goal almost mirrored our first with 4 or 5 accurate passes out of our defence with the final pass finding Doc on the edge of their ‘D’ leaving him to crash the ball past their ‘keeper’s outstretched left leg.

A good win with all the youngsters playing well.

Scorers: Duncan Ruzzak, Gordon Johnston

Sat, 13th October - Edinburgh University VII 2-1 Dunfermline Carnegie VII

Youths a bit thin on the ground due to school holidays plus “A FIRST” for an excuse for not being able to play …. Duncan Ruzzak had to ‘phone me to say “he was grounded”. (I do seem to remember one Jamie Stewart having to give me the same excuse for the 3rds a few years ago, Chef.)

As expected the Uni side were young and full of running, fortunately their shooting was a bit wayward and the ones on target were saved whenever they did break through our defence, not that they achieved that too often. As a result we reached half time still on level terms.

The atmosphere at Peffermill was almost party-like as it was what they call their “Club Day” and ALL their Men’s and Ladies teams were at home that day so there was quite a crowd watching and as you can no doubt imagine they were voicing their opinions at every move and umpires decision.

We did hush them slightly 5 minutes into the second half when we scored from a free hit outside the ‘D’ which was deflected into the roof of the net by Dave McIntosh. We held that lead for a further 20 minutes but were having to deal with more and more Uni attacks as our midfield tired. From yet another corner they equalised from a straight hit that beat both ‘keepers pad and our full back on the line. We re-shuffled players slightly trying to achieve more cover and for a short while it worked but with 3 minutes to go they scored a second from a shot from just inside our ‘D’ on our left which two defenders and our ‘keeper let go thinking it was going wide only to see it hit the inside of the far post.

A disappointing end to a game where everyone worked their socks off.

Scorer: Dave MacIntosh

Sat, 6th October - Dunfermline Carnegie VII 2-2 Falkirk GHG V

Unfortunately it was a case of two points lost rather than a point won. It was a good game however as far as team spirit and teamwork was concerned with many promising moves, lots of passing and 100% effort from all the youths.

We managed to dictate much of the play in the first half forcing five short corners to their two. Our first goal however did not come from a corner but from open play when Duncan Ruzzak pounced on a poor clearance, ran with the ball into the 'D' and hammered a shot past their 'keeper (Not bad so far - 2 games, 2 goals). We were 2 - 0 up at H.T. thanks to a s.c. strike by David Lees - not well placed (centre of goal) but hard enough to go under the diving 'keeper.

Falkirk started the second half like a different team and had us virtually pinned into our own half for the first 15 minutes. Unfortunately before we managed to stem the flow they scored twice, firstly from a goalmouth scramble and secondly from a s.c. Both were disapointing because Willie Dunsterhad made a good save from both first shots but the rebounds went to their sticks not ours. As the game progressed we were again exerting more pressure on their goal than they were on ours but that winning goal eluded us.

Good enjoyable game overall with pleasing performances from all the youth players. Thanks to Rod Ruzzak for umpiring for us and DOC for running our bench.

Scorers: Duncan Ruzzak, Duncan Lees

Sat, 29th September - Stirling Wanderers II 3-1 Dunfermline Carnegie VII

A good start to the league programme with a side containing two of last season's juniors plus three juniors playing their first games for the club. With our 5's not having a game Doc and John Lees were called in to replace the 3 seniors not available this week but at the last minute John Lees did himself another "nasty" so a quick call to the caledonia pitch to find a substitute resulted in john's son David being bundled into my car.

The youngsters settled in almost immediately and some good passing moves were put together down both flanks. We opened the scoring on 15 minutes when left midfielder Francis Munnoch controlled a cut back before pushing home just inside the 'keepers left hand post. Our second goal on 25 minutes was almost identical when a hard cross from our right was controlled by Duncan Ruzzak and with their goalie scrambling to make tracks across his goal Duncan swept the ball high into the net in the space the 'keeper had just left.

Second half was a bit more even but we had plenty of promising attacking moves with Duncan enjoying plenty of freedom behind their defence. Our third on 50 minutes was scored by David Lees after he intercepted a clearance then beat three defenders before sliding the ball under the diving 'keeper from point-blank range. With two minutes left a ball travelling at about 1 m.p.h. found a foot on the line (doubtful if it had the pace to cross the line) but a penalty was the only decision. Another test for guest 'keeper Craig Ogilvie who had played very well throughout (only to be expected of course) but despite guessing the correct corner it just eluded his dive.

Scorers: Francis Munnoch, Duncan Ruzzak, David Lees

Club Matters