Five-star Watt make light work of dismal Dundee

Heriot-Watt vs. Dundee

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What a difference a fortnight makes. Just two weeks ago Heriot-Watt were sitting bottom of the BUSA Scottish Conference League 1, having taken one solitary point from their opening three games. Three wins and an astonishing fifteen goals later, they have moved ahead of arch-rivals the University of Edinburgh into second place and have the top of the table firmly in their sights. Judging by this ruthlessly efficient performance, you’d be brave to bet against them.

Two fine strikes from Ewen Watson effectively killed the game off before the interval, and two more in quick succession either side of the hour mark made the result a formality, leaving time for a wonderful solo effort from Omar Kader, who beat two Dundee defenders on the edge of the box before slipping the ball coolly under the advancing goalkeeper. Only some decidedly reckless finishing from the Heriot-Watt strikers prevented them from reaching double figures in the second half.

Dundee struggled manfully to keep a toe-hold in this game, but the team was simply unable to cope with the pace and directness of the Watt’s football. In Phil Berry and Ross Paterson, Dundee possess two tall, powerful forwards who might have intimidated a less organised defence, but they toiled in vain against an unflappable back line. Meanwhile, their own defence seemed completely at a loss against Heriot-Watt’s two rapid wide men, Craig Gillen and the superb Kader, who had put Edinburgh University to the sword a week previously.

The match began brightly, and Watson’s composed finish inside the first ten minutes suggested that we might be in for another rout. But a stalemate soon emerged, both teams careless in possession and unable to put together more than a handful of passes. Indeed it came as something of a shock when, minutes before the interval, Kader’s smart turn and reverse pass opened up the Dundee defence for Watson, whose low shot Chris Cargill could only deflect into the net.

Two goals behind at half-time, Dundee desperately needed a change of plan. Unfortunately, without a manager and with only one substitute available, they were unable to come up with a way to get themselves back in the game. The second period began much as the first had ended, with Heriot-Watt keeping the ball well and Kader tormenting the hapless Jonathan Currie. Three times in ten minutes he laid on golden opportunities that his strikers wasted, before Cassidy finally rediscovered his Midas touch and put the game beyond doubt. His fine close-range finish on the hour made it 3-0, and was followed up two minutes later with a jinking run into the box that left defenders trailing. Finding himself one-on-one with the keeper, he simply pulled the ball back to the arriving Oliver Anthony for the simplest of finishes.

Inevitably the game opened up in the final thirty minutes, with Heriot-Watt unable to sustain the blistering pace of the first hour. Chances went begging at both ends but Dundee never looked capable of mounting a comeback, and it was left to Kader to provide the final flourish that his side’s dominant performance fully deserved.

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