3rd Team Vs Solihull Bloss

What a dreadful day to play hockey. A bedraggled 11 turned up to play and waited patiently as the previous game ran over. The game started well with Simon Evans terrorising the Solihull defence and excellent movement from our young forwards. The only thing lacking was the finish. Solihull constructed a break down their right and the initial waist high shot was saved by Ian Dillworth with the rebound falling to a forward who slapped it home. Undaunted we pressed again and created more good chances including having both parts of a shattered ball in the back of Solihull's goal the half finished with us a goal down. After a positive teamtalk we lined up for the second half. Solihull restarted the game and the initial pass went to a midfielder who Eddie Thompson expertly robbed and set off on a powerful run through the heart of the defence finishing his solo effort with style for 1-1. Again the pace of our attacking play had the opponents under pressure. Simon provided a cross to Gary O’Sullivan who slipped it to James Dunn who finished at the back post for 1-2. Solihull had a period of pressure which culminated in a hotly contested penalty corner which they scored for 2-2. The boys were having none of that and attacked again and again with Solihull making some desperate last ditch tackles and drawing a string of fine saves from their young ‘keeper. Eventually the pressure paid off when Gary smashed a penalty corner towards the right post and Simon flicked it over the stranded keeper for 2-3. The game was not over and Solihull had a period of pressure which required some excellent defending by Jack Pearson and the ever reliable Harj Duhra seeing us finish the match victorious.

We didn't vote for man of the match and there were a long list of contenders but I'd like to award the accolade to Simon Evans for his fabulous performance.