For Mother’s Day yesterday my better half Irene got to watch our eldest son Murray on his bike for an hour around 10.00 am at Redbridge Cycling Centre in North London then drive him over four hundred miles back home to Edinburgh. For the other half of the Lawson Red Arrows it was a lazy morning before Robert and I headed over to his 11.30 Edinburgh South game against Hutchie followed by a couple of hours on the decking in the sun (me, van Gaal and a bottle of Rioja actually with the wee man on the Xbox with his brother out the way). Around half four it was a trip up to Leslies to support England (for once) then back down for tea followed by the Scotland game. Methinks Mother’s Day had a gender change.
Right my hand is up. I wasn’t booing but let’s just say I wasn’t enamoured by the Scotland manager’s substitutions last night, especially the last one and he got my wrath rather than Chris Martin as our World Cup hopes appeared to be dying in front of our eyes. I wasn’t that happy with Gordon’s starting eleven either but fair play to him and the players because they played well and should have put the game to bed long before the impressive Stuart Armstrong slipped the aforementioned Mr Martin through on goal. By the way had someone slipped the otherwise impregnable Jan Oblak a free pass through British Immigration or a winning lottery ticket as the previously imperious keeper turned into a Sunday morning hungover custodian when he let the ball past him into the corner of the net. Not that your Blogger, his son Robert or a football supporting nation cared one jot. We’re back – bring on England………….well we’re back up to fourth out of six and it’s only England next. Let’s just enjoy the moment.
I’d enjoyed the wee man’s football a few hours earlier. Hutchie hammered us the last time we played at Clermiston on an early, cold and wet winter’s morning and they must have sent a second string yesterday. It finished 7-2 for The South but it was a lot closer than that with the opposition hitting the woodwork more times than Leigh Griffiths in an end to end game. Robert trained with Hearts for three months as an eight year old but wasn’t big and strong enough and tearfully discarded (that’s him and his mum crying). He’s since made the Riccarton SFA 20/20 sessions and is representing Edinburgh Primary Schools this year so he’s obviously a ‘no bad, wee yin’ for his age. Anyway a friend of mine Brain Harris who’s some loose connection with the Hearts had been asking after the wee man and he took the game in yesterday in a scouting capacity and he was impressed by more than Robert in the South team. No doubt a report will go in.
For the record it was 2-0 at half-time and Robert had set both goals up, the first with a cross and the second with a through ball. He was substituted but not before scoring two goals himself after the break and he went back on at 4-1. Now this is where he’s unlike his dad as a player because in the last ten minutes he had three clear sights at goal but each time he drew the keeper and put a team-mate in. Edinburgh South scored seven and Robert had a hand in every goal. It was Father’s Day by 12.30 yesterday.
Right there’s a lot more I’ve got to say on the weekend’s sport but van Gaal, Dead Eye Jack and your Blogger have been invited down to Kilspindie by Eamonn Bannon for a round of golf. The sun is out, there’s little wind, it’s a wonderful wee course and the company will be top drawer. Isn’t every day, Father’s Day?
mickeylawson 