Coach Ian Wilson was forced to shuffle his squad about, with several key players made unavailable. Top scorer Lee Morton was on international duty, representing Scotland U21's in Spain. Whilst Scottish international Fraser Hirst missed out with a groin injury. Defenders Andrew Wilkie, Miles Goldie and Mark Connor also missed the clash.

Captain Niall MacLeod and Thomas Mackintosh formed the centre-back pairing for the first time this season, and after ten minutes found themselves two goals down. The visitors had started off the better of the two teams and were deservedly ahead, taking advantage of a short corner. They doubled their advantage minutes later. A swift counterattack ended with the Strathclyde winger cutting in from the right side, beating two defenders and clinically lobbing the ball over Paul Blair in the UWS goals.

UWS were not to be outdone, and clawed their way back into the game. MacLeod made the most of a UWS short corner, dispatching a trademark drag flick into the top right hand corner of the goal. West equalised moments later, another short corner but this time fell to Anchor forward Danny McDonald who bundled the ball over the line to tie the game.

The two teams again traded goals, with Strathclyde going 3-2 up before Niall MacLeod grabbed his second of the game. Another short flawless short corner routine with the ball ending up in the same corner of the net on the stroke of half-time to bring the teams in level.

In the second half, UWS upped their game, carrying on the pressure that created a number of further short corners, however MacLeod was denied twice by the Strathclyde goalkeeper, as well as a defender on the line. UWS finally took the lead themselves on fifty-five minutes, another short corner ended with MacLeod completing his hat-trick, this time placing the ball between the keeper's legs for 4-3.

The home side found themselves with their backs against the wall in the final ten minutes as they tried to see the game out. Some excellent defending by Chris Lawson and Scott Crossan limited the Strathclyde attack, and when the visitors did break through they found Blair to be in some revitalised form as he made some superb instinctive saves.

Two minutes before full-time, the UWS resistance was broken. A scramble in the West area saw the ball fall to a Strathclyde attacker, who clipped the ball over Blair and with Mackintosh unable to prevent the ball from crossing the line, the game finished up 4-4.

The draw keeps UWS top of the league on thirteen points, and with results going their way in the new year, UWS could find themselves achieving their second successive promotion.

Coach Ian Wilson: "We made life difficult for ourselves, going two goals down was the wake up call we shouldn't have given ourselves early in the game. Once we got focused we started to play some great hockey, and carved out the opportunities that lead to the goals." 

"Couldn't fault anyone's effort this afternoon, they all dug deep to grind out the result and although they will all feel hard done by walking away with only a point, we have to remember the first ten minutes of the game - suddenly 4-4 isn't such a bad result."