1st Team Vs Stone 2

Another away game for the 1st XI meant a delightful journey up to windy old Stone. Never a nice place to visit in the winter, but at least now they have a new playing surface to replace the glorified carpark that they had there before. Much kinder on the knees.

The reverse of this fixture earlier in the season was a heated affair, with Stone determined to blame their 5-1 defeat solely on the umpires. So it was with sweet, sweet satisfaction that Wulfs outplayed them again and repeated the score from the first time around. Another resounding 5-1 win.

However, what was more satisfying is the fact that Wulfs are now truly beginning to play to their potential, albeit a little late in the season. But better late than never.

The first two goals of the game came from penalty corners. Old Wulfs got the opener when the routine went slightly wrong but the ball eventually fell to Simon Palmer who tucked it away into the far corner.

Stone then equalised through their own penalty corner, when the resulting flick fortuitously deflected off a Wulfs stick to leave Colin stranded.

At this point the play was quite end-to-end, but Wulfs managed to get another before halftime when Saunders put a through-ball into Will Ashworth who controlled and beat the keeper with an accurate finish into the corner from a tight angle.

After the break, Old Wulfs managed to score another two goals, also from penalty corners. The first of these was pushed hard towards Darryl Ablard on the left post. No one (Darryl included) could quite decide who got the final touch but the result was a goal which Darryl claimed.

The next goal was then pushed towards the right post, where this time it was Andy Hobley running in. He though got a deflection that was clean a whistle, sending the ball at high speed into the roof of the net.

Overall, the second half was complete domination by Old Wulfs who really should have scored more than the eventual five goals. On more than one occasion the Stone defence gifted the Wulfs forwards the ball in dangerous positions through sloppy passing, but this wasn’t punished as it could have been.

As it was, there was only one more scored by the visiting side when Owen Shave broke away, Wulfs forwards overloaded the D, and the ball was simply squared to Richard Saunders who tapped into an empty goal.

There was though, just enough time for Old Wulfs to switch off in the final minutes, but Palmer cleared an effort off the line and Colin made a fine save from a Stone penalty corner at the death to keep the final score 5-1.

Man of the Match – Darryl Ablard