Hockey: Weakened Edinburgh’s loss plunges club into drop fight

The Meggetland side asked second-team players to step-up to play and used five players aged under 18 – with three of them appearing for the first time for the top squad.

David Guy netted twice for Edinburgh and Allan, last season’s Coach of the Year, said: “We asked for a postponement. We had a number of players unavailable because of work and then we had some with injuries.

“We’re not happy but nobody was listening to us.”

Eighth-placed Edinburgh lost 8-3 and this plunges them into the relegation dogfight with Hillhead who are now ninth only three points behind with a game in hand.

Hillhead drew 0-0 with Edinburgh University in Glasgow and Keith Joss, Hillhead’s coach, said: “That’s four points out of six we’ve collected since the restart of the outdoor league and we’re definitely moving in the right direction.”

Champions Kelburne logged their 11th straight victory and moved six points clear of the chasing pack with a 5-2 success at Clydesdale, who have slipped to seventh position.

Second-placed Grange scored through Duncan Batchelor with almost the last move of the game to draw 3-3 at Western, despite holding a 2-0 lead at one stage.

Inverleith, who are fourth, won 2-0 at bottom club Dundee Wanderers thanks to a penalty corner strike from Chris Duncan and a late goal from Ross Jamieson after a flowing move involving Phil Hall and John Harris.