Match reports from the 8th March
Men’s 2nd XI 3-4 Beeston 2nd XI
Goals: Tristan O’Connor, James Knibb (2).
After an intense training session and still carrying the buzz from the previous weeks win. Northamptons finest ‘Alternatives’ arrived at Highfields or what may be perceived as hockey’s equivalent to Disneyworld; a place where dreams come true.
Whilst it can be argued that the atmosphere in the changing rooms were rather relaxed it cannot be denied that every player were preparing for not just a match but a war with the enemy who acquired (to our dismay) a great asset to our team.
The first half began not quite to plan with Northampton finding themselves on wrong foot almost instantly. Ben Northedge tracked his player to the baseline with the intent to watch the ball out, only to find the opposition’s player had other plans in mind. This led to a horrendous stick tackle and more importantly a short corner for Northampton to defend. This would be our first challenge of the match and one that Beeston converted to a goal after faultless drag flick that you may be able to observe first hand if you catch Beeston play in the EHL in the coming month.
With approximately 65 minutes of the war remaining, Northampton responded like a bull to a red cloth. The team dug deep and did what the alternatives do best, played beautiful hockey and found the gaps throughout a team that despite their nickname lacked the sting we were all expecting at the start of the season. James Knibb created something out of nothing on more than one occasion throughout the first half and was unfortunate to not put the alternatives on the score sheet during the first half. After a very vocal expletive from James, the umpire marked his presence to the match and had a quiet word with Knibb who respected the umpires comments.
Northampton carried on their surge, with Tristan o’ Connor continually making leads to the baseline and into the D, as if he had practiced this particular tactic somewhere. Sam Mitchell found himself on a number of occasions in the right place at the right time for goal scoring opportunities only to be selfishly denied by Ben Northedge still salivating from the goal last week. Sooner rather than later our first and second short corners came only to be marginally denied on both occasions.
Despite the scoreline, the team talk was upbeat and encouraging for us to keep looking for the opportunity and subsequently the goals.
The second half came and will be dubbed as the half of errors. With Northampton trailing we responded with the correct attitude; the team kept banging on the door knowing that sooner rather than later it would open…and it did. All thanks to an insignificant individual in the opposition defence making a school boy error of a pass across the pitch for Tristan o’ Connor to pick up, arrogantly taking onto his reverse and slotting home. And so followed a bombardment of opportunities; Chris Reid found himself on the right wing at one point, captain Greg Summers unleashed his inner strength to produce a full pitch aerial that lobbed the left back for Knibb’s to take into the D. But the next goal came from an unselfish Harry York who slotted the ball across the goal for James Knibb to tuck under the keeper.
However, do not be fooled, Beeston’s fire shone through and they regularly returned the favour by bombarding the defence with opportunity after opportunity. Their goals did not come from their skill or expertise but somewhat from the term errors.
So to conclude, despite the result, despite Hockey’s Disney World not providing us with the happy ending we had hoped for. We all went home knowing that we put 100% into the match, our heart went into that game and with 1 point left to secure safety we can somewhat prepare ourselves for our third year of this journey. Beeston will be there next year, Highfields will be there next year…but we will be stronger, we will be better and we will WIN!
Squad: Jay Worsfold (GK), Ben Northedge, Tom Lewington, George Roberts, Greg Summers (c), Chris Reid, Dan Whittaker, Matt Gausden, Tom Lewington, Harry Yorke, Sam Mitchell, Stephan Williams, Tristan O’Connor, James Knibb
Nottingham 3rd XI 1-8 Men’s 3rd XI
Scorers: Knight (4), Rose (2), Pibworth , Miller
With 3 games to go Saints knew the title and promotion was within their grasp.
Elliot Wilde made his debut and the team looked settled from the start. After several moves into the 25 Rose broke into the D to square for Pibworth to score. Soon after the sequence was reversed with Dan scoring a lovely reverse shot into the roof of the net. Nerves were jangling for Dan Rose who was playing with one ear open to his mobile ringtone with twins on the horizon. This may have explained his first yellow of the season for repeatedly questioning the umpire. Not long before halftime Saints scored their third, with Jack Knight in the right place to tap into an empty net. This was the same with the forth, this time Pete Comben turning provider for Knight to touch home.
Knight’s magic touch continued into the second half, following up Rose’s initial shot to complete the hatrick. Knight completed his goal haul after Rose broke into the D to square for Knight to tapin. To keep Saints on there toes, Nottingham did pull a goal back from the penalty corner, however by this stage it was a consolation. Hillier was green carded for some chat back before Saints scored their seventh and best goal of the game. The ball broke to James Miller, who after showing a lovely deft touch past the last defender sped into the D like a cheetah. Seeing the keeper striving out, making the shot nigh on impossible to score from, Miller showed skill of the highest level to clip the ball round the keeper to roll perfectly into the corner. The eighth came just before the end with Rose, who had just injure his hand, again running into the D and reversing in past a stranded keeper. 8-1 the score and due to transpiring results means that Saints can win the league and promotion in their next home match.
MOTM: Elliot Wilde – impressive debut
DOTD: Pete Comben – night out shenanigans including karaoke to impress
Squad: Scott Bashford (gk), Steve Morris, James Miller, Jason Hillier, Luke Pibworth, Dan Rose, Nigel Down, Harry Stobart, Ian McIlwaine (c), Pete Comben, Jack Knight, Elliot Wilde
Men’s 4th XI 6-6 Nottingham University 4th XI
Goals: Rob Tee, Ed Arnold, Simon Chapman, ?, ?, ?.
A spring like afternoon greeted the arrival of champion elect Notts Univ. There was an air of nervous tension in the Saints ranks thinking back to the earlier fixture away when the uni boys were victorious 9-0. Ten minutes into the game things were looking ominous with the uni side were 3-0 up due to several mistakes by Will Jeckyll in goal – almost against the run of play. Instead of letting the heads go down Saints rallied and pulled one back almost immediately to restore faith. The match settled down Saints started to exert pressure through the foraging runs of Rob Tee and Ed Arnold and after 30 minutes – parity was restored with two further strikes. With the scores level heading into half term a shot from the outside the D from Notts was turned into his own goal by the young keeper. 4-3 down at half time. It was refreshing to see that none of the crowd had left their seats early to grab prawn sandwiches such was the frenetic pace of the game and the effort put in both sides.
The second half carried on in the same vain – Saints pulling back level almost immediately – only to see Notts uni moving two goals ahead at 6-4 with 15 minutes level. Up steps Will ‘Hyde’ Powell making a number of fantastic saves to keep the two goal margin and some hopes to the saints. Still Saints poured forward prompted by the midfield of Athiq, Candy Crush and Naisan – another goal pulled back, the clock ticking down , the fat lady starting to warm up – was there a further cruel twist – great run to the byline ball pulled back – Simon Chapman had ghosted into the d and slipped the ball home with clinical precision- 6-6 all with the final hit of the game. A great game for the neutrals, excellent point for the 4ths – season tickets have taken a boost on the back of this performance for next year.
Special mentions for skipper Rob Tee who grabbed an excellent hat trick in this goal fest and another for young goal keeper Will Powell who showed great maturity in putting his first half mistakes behind him and really pulled out all of the stops in the second half to keep the Saints in the game.