M2 Find Tough Opponent in Purley Walcountians
By Tom Fox
Men’s 2s 3 – 3 Purley Walcountians 1s
As usual, the meet time was ignored by most of the team and Birdy and Schnu took a pre-match excursion to the local hospital, however once everyone had worked out the difference between a hockey pitch and hospital and the team talk was delivered by Jamma we were ready to go. After a good warm up and some stirring talk in the huddle we were fired up for what promised to be the toughest test of the season so far…and… we conceded in 30 seconds. The Purley striker showed some real individual brilliance with a mistrap into the goal – but they all count and we were on the back foot. After this early wake-up call we got a foothold in the game and started making chances, Dodders and Bean scored in quick succession to put us 2-1 up.
We carried on this momentum for another 15 minutes with Dodders and Scott controlling the midfield and right back Harry nearly finishing off a Barcelona-esque team move, however the Purley keeper made a good save and the score remained 2-1. Not having star man Jamie T at the back seemed to be affecting us pretty badly (congrats to him for getting selected in the 1s again), as we fell asleep yet again on the stroke of half time and Purley scored a decent counter-attack goal to tie the scores.
To make it ‘two from two’ for terrible starts to a half, we conceded in the first 30 seconds of the 2nd half – putting us 3-2 down. We then became very bad at hockey for 15 minutes and probably should have conceded again but some good saves from Rooney kept the score at 3-2. A 2s match just wouldn’t be a 2s match without someone getting a card and although it took longer than usual, Harry did the honours and picked up a green halfway through the second half (he should have had one earlier). We pulled it together again later in the game though, and despite getting a DOD vote for ‘actually being a ghost’, Caspar produced a much-needed moment of individual skill, keeping his head in the D to beat a man and slot the ball in the bottom corner.
A very intense last 10 minutes followed with a lot of whinging at the umpires from both teams (mostly us...) and a game of counter attack tennis, however neither team could find a winner and the game ended 3-3. A decent result from the boys after a tough battle with a strong and organised side – we remain top of London Area Premier Division on GD and go again in two weeks against West Hampstead after some half term R&R.
POM: Tom Dodwell
DOD: Tom Fox