Scottish Thistles Over 70 v Cumbria Select

Glasgow National Hockey Centre 21 April 2016

Scottish Thistles 0 Cumbria Select 5

Scottish Thistles adopted a 3-4-3 formation which allowed the Cumbria midfield to take charge of the match. Instead of the tight diamond formation adopted in the Scotland-England match at the same venue in March, the Scots played the outer midfielders wide, leaving new recruit Jon Beale facing two Cumbrian midfielders on his own. The younger, faster and more mobile English forwards made life very difficult for the Scottish back three, and Thistles finished the half four down, two goals coming from short corners and two from open play.

Half time gave the Scots a chance to regroup, and they played the half in a 4-4-2 formation which restricted the Cumbrians' ability to thread passes through to their mobile forwards. One further goal from Cumbria finished the scoring.

Scottish Thistles never really threatened the Cumbrian goal and, all in all, it was a disappointing performance and result.

Squad: Jon Beale*, Alan Bryce, Ian Downie, Andy Ferrol, Kieran McLernan (Captain), David Margerison, Doug Morrice, Dick Pearce (GK), Ally Philip, Robbie Robertson, Alan Strachan, Douglas Turner*, Sandy Weir.

* underage players

Umpires: Raymond Neilson and Norrie Springford