Perthshire stick in to secure comfortable Stepps win
Perthshire men’s firsts upped the tempoin the second half torun out comfortable winners against Stepps.
The weekend’s National League Division 2encounter was locked at 2-2 at the break before Shire turnedon the gas to eventually securea 7-4 triumph.
OlympianStephenDick wasthe star manwithfourof the goals, while Michael Robertson chippedinwith twoand Neil Robertson one.
“It was a tough first half, was quite even and we weren’t really playing that well,”said captainMichael Swan. “But we came back into it in the second half and dominated them.From there, they didn’t really have a chance.
“Stephen is a brilliant player.He played for Great Britain atthe Olympics andis going to score plentyofgoals.
“He’s been really good for the team and is important for theyounger players too.
“The guys can look up to himand see where they can get to.He bringsthemintothe team and developing players is what we need to do.
“Wedon’t have a university where manystudents stay, so it’s good to getthemin young and have a mentor like Stephen.”
A number ofplayers from Shire’syouth ranks have steppedintothe first team set-up this season.
And Swan added:“I wasone of the coaches forthe under-18s for abouteight years. They have managed to do really well.
“Having those guys coming through has beenfantastic for us.It gives us quite a lot of depth in thesquads.
“We’ve had no issues with theyounger guys making the step up. They are nowused to adult hockeyand I can’t fault them at all.”
Perthplayers will look to keep the momentum flowing in this weekend’s leaguetussle withGlasgow University.
“They are a team weshould be looking to beat,”Swan said. “It will be close, but I think we cangetthe win.
“It’s been an up-and-down season.The games we’ve lost have been against teams sitting towards thetop.
“Hopefully in the second half of the seasonwecanget one over on themand push ourselves up.
“It hasn’t been looking too bad so far, so hopefully we can continue with scoring more goals and picking up wins.
“If wemanageto finish in thetop three or four,that’s ideal. But we obviously really want to be winning itand going for promotion.”
After this weekend, Shire face a league match against Gordonianson November 16 before a Scottish Cup tie with Highlandthe following day.