Hockey: Monklands end warm-up with defeat

Sep 7 2011 by Colin Paterson, Airdrie & Coatbridge

Monklands Men's Hockey Club

PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY:

HILLHEAD 3 MONKLANDS 2

HOT-SHOT Colin McAdams bagged a brace but couldn’t prevent Monklands sliding to defeat at Hillhead.

The prolific marksman struck twice for his side in Saturday’s final pre-season friendly but the home team did just enough to prevail.

Monklands captain Andy McKellar said: “It was hard to deny that Hillhead deserved their victory.

“But we can still take a lot from the fact that it was a couple of very unlucky deflections which proved decisive in the final scoreline.”

Monklands were without six players for the trip to Jordanhill ahead of this Saturday’s National League Division Three opener at Greenock.

And the Coatbridge outfit were on the back foot for much of the opening period with attacks few and far between.

It was perhaps no surprise to see Hillhead break the deadlock in the 34th minute. A penalty corner led to a reverse stick shot which took a deflection and beat keeper George Armstrong.

Hillhead doubled their lead when a loose ball in the area was smashed home and a third goal arrived when a drive from a short corner deflected over Armstrong and into the net.

However, Monklands finished the match strongly and pulled one back through McAdams who struck with a delicate reverse stick effort.

In the 61st minute, McAdams netted again to make it 3-2 but that goal ended the scoring with Monklands unable to plunder an equaliser.

Monklands: Armstrong; McGinley, McKellar, Walker, Zakaria, Kane, Paterson, Currie, D Leaker; A Leaker, McAdams.

Man of the match: Lee Currie.