Men's 2nd XI Vs Mansfield 3

A slightly concussed Mark Willey reports:

Snhc 2’s vs Mansfield 3’s

It was a wet and miserable day that greeted the mighty twos to there away trip to Mansfield. Huddled in the tiny changing room Captain Stuart Croston ‘Grozzy’ gave his inspirational team talk and plan for the game running through the positions of the new and exciting formation.

From the whistle Mansfield started strong piling on the pressure and looking the better team. South’s solid defence soaked up wave after wave of attacks with Brian Blackmore and Will Brydon looking like a brick wall to the Mansfield attack.
Against the run of play it was South who found the net first, a well worked phase of passes found The skipper one on one with the keeper. Calm and collected as ever Grozzy flicked it past the rooted pads to make it 1-0.
Mansfield restarted with gusto and proceeded to gain a shortcorner, a scrappy exchange ended with Neil Batty getting a ball to the chest deemed by the umpire to be a deliberate attempt to stop the shot on goal resulting in a Penalty Flick.
Sam Lane stood his ground saving the flick with ease!
This turned the game for South and provided added inspiration to create the second goal. Fantastic work from Ian lane and Adam Sharpe in the centre of the park created the chance for Grozzy to slip the ball to a well placed Mike Shapland who edged into the goal

Half time 2-0

The 2nd half saw South settle the game with a display of domineering hockey and sublime tackling from man of the match Elliot Dixon playing out of position on the left. Excellent work from Sam Clough and Henry Dixon kept the ball moving down the right to create more chances although not converted. The only goal for South coming from another sweet pass from Batty to the skipper who in turn found Mike loitering beside the far post 3-0 to South.
The last 10 minutes got a bit scrappy with South conceding a short corner resulting in the Mansfield striker hitting Mark Willey in the head rather than the ball. Luckily Brian was there to hold his hand while the pain subsided!
Unfortunately a rare mistake from the South defence in the closing minutes of the game resulted in a consolation goal for the opposition.

Final score 3-1

A cold and wet game resulted in a decent performance from the mighty 2’s and a great end to end game. There’s still much to work on but real positive hockey at this stage of the season. Bring on Boots next week and I’m bringing a helmet!