4th Team Vs Aldridge & Walsall 4

Old Wulf’s 4ths travelled to Aston University Recreation Centre to take on Walsall & Aldridge on a fine afternoon if not a little chilly due the exposed nature of the pitch.

Old Wulf’s 4ths got the game underway and in the opening 10 there was little to pick between the two sides with both enjoying a fair amount of possession without any reward. Old Wulf’s continued to press and slowly grew into the game, holding and working the ball well and going close on a few occasions.  Finn after some good skilful stick work managed to work an opening and released a shot that somehow hit the underside of the crossbar ricocheted onto the post but evaded the goal. Old Wulf’s started to enjoy more possession in the oppositions half and it wasn’t long before they got their reward when Rajveer’s shot beat the keeper to make it 1-0.  Finn could have made it two, but W&A’s keeper pulled off a brilliant save when their outstretched left glove managed to deflect the shot away from goal. Five minutes later Finn got his reward again showing some good skill at hand with the ball to make it 2-0. Sam then went close narrowly putting a ball wide of the left post from the top of the D as he transited left to right going away from goal.  Moments later it was Sam’s turn and from a similar position at the edge of the D, this time with sights zeroed he made no mistake and accurately slotted the ball just inside of the left post. 3-0.  That’s not to say OW’s had it all their own way in the first half if it hadn’t been for two excellent last-minute intervening stops W&A would have been one on one with OW keeper and it could so easily have been 2-0.

 HT 3-0

During the half time talk the message was not to rest on our laurels and come out of the blocks focussed ready and straight at them. It obviously worked as 40 seconds from the start of the second half 4ths got their fourth through Sam.  4-0. Then 90 -120 seconds after the restart OW initially thought they had earned themselves a penalty corner only for a flick to be awarded. Captain for the day (Neil Ward) stepped up and excellent executed a well-placed flick sending the keeper the other way scored OW’s 5th.  Despite this W&A continued to play and should be complemented for there never give up attitude.  OW’s continued to look for another and following some good interplay Lewis found himself in a good position and put in a well-placed goal bound shot, which W&A’s keeper somehow manged to send the ball up vertically from the goal line, over the cross bar and onto the roof of the net. However Lewis didn’t have to wait too long and 12 minutes in Lewis’s received a ball from out wide, which was coolly slotted in from around the P spot. 6-0. O w continued to move the ball around although had lost some of their vigour, W&A started to get some more purposeful possession in OW’s final third and forced no less than 4 short corners in quick succession. OW’s Defence held firm on each occasion doing just enough to preserve the shoreline.  As the game was drawing to a close both sides went close W&A shooting wide and OW’s just failing to get on the end of some good diagonal through balls.  And so it finished 6-0.

Full Time 6-0 win

Players MOM goes to SAM with 4 votes, others were Nic 2, Finn 2, Lewis 2, Andy H 1, Harj 1.

Goal Scorers: Sam 2, Finn 1, Lewis 1, Rajveer 1, Neil 1.

Summary: A good game of hockey, with a lot of good performances throughout the team, special mentions to Nic who had another good game, and Rowley who not having that much to do during the game preserved the clean sheet, our first of the season, when called into action late in the game. Additionally, there were also some contenders for miss of the season. (You know who you are). An enjoyable game to watch and it was refreshing to witness a game played in such a good manner and all players on both sides were a credit to the game.