The long wait for the season to start finally came to an end for everyone connected with the Junior side of the club however the joy prior to the game turned to disappointment as we were eventually well beaten by Hermes despite an impressive first half showing.

Lots of new faces this season, with many playing their 1st ever competitive match at ’Men’s’ level but it would have been hard to tell watching from the sideline in the opening period. The University started the brighter, with Hermes slow out the traps and Mooney flashed a shot over the bar in the early exchanges whilst Mcluckie on the right was always in space on the right flank going forward and creating opportunities for Mccolgan and Chilaka ahead of him but no real clear chance fell to them early on.

However, Hermes link up play up front was neat and sharp, their extensive preseason friendly campaign showing its benefits & when a Blackhouse goal kick was headed back into our half, the main striker laid off to no. 18 who from close to 40 yards hit an absolute wonder strike over the big Uni keeper.

The Uni were up for the battle all over the pitch and Brown and Nacef both made important blocks & interceptions to keep Hermes from adding another but the Hermes pressure finally broke through when no. 12 spun his man in the box and lashed a curling effort into the far post to make it 2-0.

Only moments later however we were back in it. A deep free kick fired into the box by captain Clark was nodded down and it fell to the perfect man, Chilaka, who made no mistake from 10 yards.

We could have equalised just before half time when Clark’s impressive through ball found Mcluckie cutting behind the defence but he couldn’t connect properly when trying to lift the ball over the keeper.

HT: Hermes 2 – 1 AU

The second half was dominated by the home side but our tails were lifted Hermes centre midfielder, and ex AU player McKenzie, was sent off for a second yellow card on 53 minutes. However, just 5 minutes later the lead was extended when we were left watching at a corner and the towering centre half headed home.

We almost got straight back into it when Chilaka forced a save from the keeper and Mccolgan was 1st to the rebound but his effort skelped the post and bounced clear.

Moments later we were down to ten men when an uncharacteristic challenge from Nacef saw the right back rightly shown a red card. From here on out the game lost a little bit of fizz and Hermes closed the game out quite convincingly albeit we did manage to forge a few efforts on goal through Chilaka.

It was 4-1 when the no. 18 cut through the middle of the our defence before slotting high inside the near post and then a cross to the back post saw the left winger outjump his man and head on target with the ball just squirming over the line despite Blackhouse best efforts. The rout was finished with no.18 grabbing his hattrick as he swept home a ball across the face of goal just moments before full time.

FT: Hermes 6 – 1 AU

Not the result we wanted 1st game back but there aren’t many tougher opponents in the North Region Juniors than Hermes. There was plenty good to take away from the game though and we will try again next week when we welcome Hall Russell United to Hillhead Centre.

Squad: Ian Blackhouse, Riyadh Nacef, Nathan Brown, Rob Mallinder, Ross Clark, Brandon Donnelly, Nizam Abdulkarim, Kieran Mooney, Euan Mcluckie (Oscar Forbes), Owen Mccolgan (James Underwood), Nduoma Chilaka; Unused: Alex Clark, Dan Cotton

Scorer: Chilaka

AU MoM: Nduoma Chilaka – Players selection with most comments around his impressive work rate up front and ability to create chances for himself and others out of not very much.