Match Report

Opposition: East

Date: 9-Apr-2003

Time: 7:50

Looked forward to playing Easts as they are a pleasant bunch of adversaries (even Ed the Enforcer). Andrew (Strikers) was going to play keeper for us and we would have 14 players as it turned out (3 reserves is almost unheard of!!). Andrew Blanchard called to say he didn't feel too well and would come if we were short – not knowing I of course said “We're short” as you do...........

1st half.

Most of us got there earlier enough to warm up and others who arrived earlier enough thought that arriving early was enough. After all, we're vets. The run on-team selected it's self by the 3 players closest to the dugout sitting down – the rest then formed a team. Steve had had a run already with Storm (v Valley) and was looking knackered so he went straight on to the field – we're always well organised!

The two teams are usually fairly well matched and tonight was no exception. We concentrated on keeping the play away from their 'insides' and we marked closely so they were starved of good possession in attack. The game to'ed and fro'ed for the first 20 minutes with several opportunities missed punctuated with air swings (Andrews and Steves' ranging shots) and other indescretions but finally Andrew put one in the net. We took control of the park from this moment on and only Wes's excellent keeping kept the score from blowing out – he was taking particular delight in stopping my attempts (the bugger). At half time we went in 1 goal up and feeling reasonably secure. Having played them before in the semis last year we knew they could hit back if we relaxed.

2^nd Half

We got a second goal up soon after the restart when Bruce got onto an overhead and strolled past the keeper, 2 nil. We continued to play good hockey, as did they, and many half chances and some good shots were saved by Wes in their net. With 14 minutes to go we let a goal in – at this stage Greg was off injured but cheering from the sideline – we now had one supporter in the crowd (a crowd of 1). Ric was filling in well for Neil on the half-line and ran down several of their breaks when we turned the ball over. Wayne, Ray and Steve (now that he had his breath back) shored up the centre with the help of our Wes and John. The backline played well all night and we forwards continued to move the ball around, and when Andrew was on his feet and had his stick (not always at the same time) we combined well in attack and defence. With 6 minutes to go Andrew slotted his second for the night after some excellent lead up work from Darryl and Bruce and we had the cushion we needed. Darryl and I decided we could hold it in the corner for the remaining minutes and had some fun mucking about – final whistle saw us win by 3-1.

Well done guys.

Play of the night was the overhead from Wes to Bruce

Scorers: Clarris, Blanchard(2)

Cards: None

Next game 7:50pm SHC v Bulimba Green Monday 14th