Narrow defeat for Oban

Ayr 1 Oban 0 West of Scotland Div 3

Oban Hockey Club travelled to Ayr on Saturday to take on Ayr Hockey Club.

Oban started the first half playing into the bright Ayrshire sunshine. The inexperienced Oban defence were worked hard by the Ayr mid-field and strikers Lorne Macfarlane and Andrew Head gave good clearances from both sides of the pitch.

Goal keeper David Love made some brilliant saves from the edge of the ‘D’. The first half finished 0-0 with neither side taking control of the game.

Oban continued to keep their composure in the second half, with some solid man marking and shadowing of the opposition attack.

The turning point of the game came in the in the last quarter of the match as a scrappy ten minutes of play inside the Oban 22, resulted in Ayr being awarded several short corners, one of which finally led to an opposition goal.

Despite being 1-0 down, the last 12 minutes of the game were perhaps the best, with Oban dominating play in mid field, but struggling to create chances on goal.

The final result of 1-0 to Ayr was disappointing given the fairly evenly matched play for much of the game and sustained Oban team effort throughout.

This weekend the team travels to Glasgow to take on Dumfries in another rearranged away fixture.