Match Report - Scottish National League U19 Girls – Sun 2 Feb

Published: 04 February 2026

Olympia Centre– Dundee

Dunfermline WPC’s U19 girls played their 3^rd game of the 205/26 season against Caley team-mates Menzieshill & Whitehall. Due to call offs, we were only able to field 7 players against 11 opposition players. To the team’s absolute credit every player gave tremendous effort to achieve a very creditable 4-4 draw in a very exciting contest. Had we scored our numerous chances we could have won, but fair play to MH’s Ksenia Mann who had a very effective performance as opposition GK.

The first period was closely fought with players finding it difficult to find shooting space against strong defending and good goalkeeping by both teams. We did well to gain a penalty and an exclusion but unfortunately, we missed both. Unusually, 0-0 at the end of the period.

Per 2: The game opened up a bit in the 2nd period as both team’s shared 4 goals. Ava opened the scoring from the CF position before Ailsa Duncan scored from CF at the other end. We gained but missed our 2^nd penalty before Ava scored her 2^nd goal again from CF. Rosie Illes Brookbank then scored a very good equaliser from the left wing holding off two defenders. 2-2 at half time.

Per 3: Despite beginning to tire, our players continued to give their all, defending with purpose and countering strongly. Molly scored with an excellent lob from the right wing before we gained but unfortunately missed our 3^rd penalty of the game. M’Hill did gain an exclusion but we did well to defend it. A 1-0 period scoreline for a 3-2 lead at the three-quarter stage.

Per 4: The final period was a really exciting affair as both teams went toe to toe to try and gain ascendancy. We found renewed energy to keep attacking but couldn’t find a way past GK Ksenia. Ailsa D scored her 2^nd goal of the game to equalise at 3-3 before Ava put us back in the lead with an excellent “fake” lob from the perimeter after which Millie Wishart equalised with a close in shot after a scrambled rebound. With 2 minutes left on the clock we called a timeout to offer a little breather and to refocus the team and we did excellently to gain our 4^th penalty and 2^nd exclusion of the game. Unfortunately, good goalkeeping and resolute defending kept us out. The game finished with a 2-1 period advantage to M’Hill and both teams level at 4-4. Well done to both teams.

Game Reflections:

This was a really exciting game of water polo between two very hard working and predominantly young players. That we achieved a draw, restricting the opposition to just 4 goals and conceding only two exclusions with just 7 players was an excellent effort. We did have chances to win gaining four penalties and two 6v5’s but we weren’t able to capitalise under pressure and probably tiredness.

Going forward we should continue our excellent work rate whilst focusing on:

• Passing the ball to a free player or getting a foul quickly when being pressed strongly, especially in the wide areas and on the Counter-Attack.
• The accuracy of long passing distribution by both players and GK and our shooting.
• Getting into a vertical position early so that on receiving the ball you can shoot quickly.
• Move forward strongly when in a 1vGK situation to try and score or gain a penalty.

Match Statistics:

1. Team & Goal scorers ( ): Eve Fielding, Ruby Oswald, Ava Thornton (3), Ruby Reid, Poppy Reid, Molly Oswald (1), EllieThornton.
2. Exclusions/Pens conceded: Ruby R (1 exc), Poppy (1 exc).
3. Man-up –2 gained. 0 scored (0%) - Man-down: 2 conceded – 2 saved. (100%)
4. Penalties: 4 gained - 0 scored – (0%) – 0 conceded.

U17F DWPC v MHW Match summary

Published: 01 February 2026

Dunfermline U17 girls had to work hard to earn a 21-14 win over Menzieshill at Carnegie on 31 Jan.  Both teams were missing players; Menzieshill had 7 whilst DWPC had 9 and it made a good game. 

DWPC started to sharper with 4 goals (Hali 3, Isla) before Ailsa scored the first of her 2 goals in reply from Menzieshill.  3 more goals (Ellie 2 and Ruby O) with 1 from MHW and 7-3 at end of Q1. 

Q2 proved a closer period with Hali (2), Isla and Ellie on target for the home team with Libby D and Ailsa for MHW.  11-5 at half time.

Q3 was a stronger period for the home team to score 7 with only 2 in reply to lead 18-7 going into Q4.  Good defending and great stops from Eve in goal helped keep the goal count down. 

However, all the girls kept going and the team from Menzieshill continued to challenge to take Q4 7-3.  Final score 21-14.

A good, competitive game which saw all the girls get plenty of game time.  Thanks to coach David along with his asst coach Ruby R and TM Leanne.

Thanks to our referees Ali C and Drew Webster along with Danny, Paul and Steven on table duties.

Qtr scores: 7-3,4-2,7-2,3-7 Final score 21-14

Team (goals):  Eve, Ruby O (3), Hali (7), Niamh, Isla (5), Rosie (1), Ellie (5)

NAGS– U/19 Girls – 24 and 25 Jan - Ponds Forge

Published: 30 January 2026

After losing all four games at last year’s U19 NAGS, Caley headed down to Pond’s Forge last weekend with the intent of winning matches and hopefully as a result making progress to the Qualification round on the weekend of 18/19^th April 2026. A tough schedule awaited with three games on the first day and two on the 2^nd especially as we were only able to travel down to Sheffield with 12 players due to Libby Wallace’s late call off due to injury and only 11 players were available on the 2^nd day as top goalscorer Lucy Macnair had to travel home to play in the SWPL for Partick Thistle v Hearts.

Positively, we achieved our objective, winning our first two games which was enough to qualify in 4^th place. Very well done to the team.

In terms of our performances: we played really well to win our first two games against Manchester and Exeter where we showed good team cohesion to minimise possession losses, cover opposition counter attacks and defend flexibly making it difficult for the opposition to score. The Exeter game was particularly positive as we fought back from 5-7 down at halftime to win the 2^nd half 7-3. In the end this result proved pivotal.

These efforts took their toll however in our 3^rd and last game of day 1 as we struggled physically to match a very strong and aggressive London Otter. The team tried hard, did create chances but struggled to score under heavy defensive pressure. This included three missed penalties and two missed 6v5’s.

Table leaders and eventual winners West London Penguin were too strong for us at the start of day 2 as we struggled to provide consistent attacking threat without our centre forward Lucy and on losing possession we got caught several times on the counter-attack by GB players Jaspreet and Manpreet Gill.  

The team rallied however and whilst losing our last game v Worthing, the team is to be commended for working so hard to provide a very competitive contest, create but unfortunately miss several scoring chances and restrict opposition scoring to just two players. the excellent Lilly Dallimore and Elsie Graves who scored 33 goals between them over the weekend.  

Team and results:

Reflections:

Very well done to the team for fronting up against 5 difficult opponents over a challenging weekend to win two games and progress to the next Qualification round in 4^th place where we will meet the best seven U/19 teams in Great Britain. Whilst we tired as the weekend progressed, we never stopped trying and did show evidence that we have improved as a team from last year and at times can compete very effectively at this level. If we can work really hard in the next few weeks to raise our physical level and technical accuracy we can perform more consistently in the next challenging round.

It is important now that we find ways to get better. We need to consider the following:

• Increase the intensity of our training both individually and collectively. We need to:
  • Improve the dynamism, mobility and endurance in our movements in both attack and defence to maintain the high tempo necessary to be a consistent goal threat, apply and cover a counter-attack game and be a strong defensive unit at this age group. This will involve both polo and swim training.
  • Work more dynamically to release from holding in order to receive and pass the ball on quickly, kick up to shoot under pressure and react quickly to secure rebounds and win 50/50 situations.
  • Improve the accuracy of our technical skills of pass and shoot, 1v1 defending and penalty taking under tiredness.
• We need to find time to work together as Team Caledonia to improve our attacking and defensive team structures. This will include man-up where we scored only 7 of the 17 6v5’s gained over 5 games. That we scored 4 from the 6 gained in our last game showed the importance of having time together.
• Upcoming proposed sessions: Please complete the availability polls asap.
• Thursday 5^th February - Carnegie Centre – 8:00pm to 9:30pm
• Sat 21^st February – Strathclyde Sport – Meet 10:45 to 12:30
• Sat 28^th February – Carnegie Centre – 13:00 to 15:00
• Sat 4^th April - Carnegie Centre – 13:00 to 15:00.

Many thanks to all the players for their efforts, to Jillian and Julie for all their excellent team support and organisations, to Danny and Ian for sharing the minibus driving and Leanne, Pauline and Lyndsey for their attendance and support.

2026 SCO U18 Boys NDS Selections

Published: 27 January 2026

Big congratulations to Harry and Euan who after additional trials have been added to the 2026 Scotland NDS U18s squad 👏🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

This takes our club contribution to the squad to eight players 💪💙
Aaron Bayne
Bryn MacArthur
Caleb Wilson
Euan Ferrier
Harry Hoblyn
James Lees
John Wilson
Logan Currie