Men's 2nd XI vs Blackheath & Elthamians Heathens

A wet and windy late afternoon fixture under the floodlights at SLC against Blackheath awaited the 2's.

After a couple of close encounters in the last couple of games but unfortunately coming away empty handed on both occasions it was vital we came away with the 3 points today.

Adam Sidders led an intense warm up and after a John Barrett team talk, we were off and running.

Ville started well and were awarded their first penalty corner inside 10 minutes. Straight strike was the call, this wasn't on so a little slip left to Simon who duly finished and we were 1 up. A 2nd followed shortly after from Perks with a reverse stick effort into the far corner.

2 - 0 and cruising to victory.... you would think but no. Blackheath got back into it with a stray pass from Ville in the middle of the park their young forward capitalised, drove into the D and unleashed a shot into the roof of the net leaving Hughes no chance of stopping it. 2 - 1 and we had a game on our hands. Blackheath were now passing the ball around nicely and looking more dangerous. Ville had stepped away from what was working well early on, luckily the half time whistle came and time for a regroup.

After a pep talk at half time from JB and Simon, Ville came out of the traps with a clear set of instructions. Let the ball do the work instead of trying take everyone on and it worked in the 2nd half against a Blackheath team who travelled with a bare 11.

Perks picked an attempted switch across the back mid-air and travelled into the D and finished with a reverse half volley and regained the 2 goal cushion to make it 3 - 1.

Dave Hooper picked up the ball just outside the 22, drove at their defence beat a couple, pinged it to Sidders on the baseline who slipped it to Perks who had an open net to finish for his hatrick and make it 4 - 1. A great team move that carved open the Blackheath defence.

More and more chances came our way with a now weary Blackheath in front of us, JB managed to slot one away from close range to make it 5. Also, Sidders (finally 😀) managed to get himself on the scoresheet to finish the game off 6 - 1.

A great win, great team performance and some lovely hockey to go with it which got us the 3 points we were craving. Onto Marden Russets next weekend.