Men's 2nd XI Vs Nottingham 4

Snhc 2 vs Nottingham 4’s

Goosedale in January is the stuff dreams are made of and a cold day greeted South fresh off their performance of the season last time out. After the Chesterfield demolition and facing a Nottingham team they put 15 goals past in October, South’s confidence was sky high but the pregame chatter was about respecting possession and working hard particularly given the number of regulars missing.

With both first choice centre halves unavailable Jon Lane and new signing Stevie Powell stepped into the middle of the back line, protected by Ian Lane just in front. The unfamiliarity at the back didn’t help early on and South started slowly with a number of misplaced passes putting Sam Lane’s goal under threat. Sam had to be constantly alert and made one of the saves of the season, getting down well to turn a shot wide with his stick that had 1-0 written all over it.

The save seemed to spur South and grew into the game, starting to enjoy possession higher up the pitch with Sharpie and Nathan Gerrard driving forward, even if Nottingham threatened on the break a number of times. Suddenly though, South were ahead, Captain Grozzy at the back post didn’t get the contact he would’ve wanted but it was enough to wrong-foot the keeper and roll over the line. It wasn’t long until South were 2 up, with Mike Shapland deflecting a ball up and over the keeper and just under the crossbar. It should’ve been 3-0 at half time but the Goosedale pitch lived up to its reputation as ‘a bit bobbly’ as Grozzy drew the keeper and squared for Mike 2 yards out only for the ball to hit a piece of patchwork and jump up over the sweeping stick.

Pleased to be 2-0 up at HT but aware they hadn’t played well, South made a point of being more composed with their play, ensuring no more hospital passes across the face of their own goal. Chances kept coming for South and eventually a ball broke to Mike near the top of the D and he fired a reverse stick finish in. Gary Pickering made it 4-0 with a bullet of a strike in at the near post off penalty corner. South could’ve had 5 but a great deflected effort from Elliot Dixon drew an excellent save from the Nottingham keeper who made a number of good stops throughout.

It wasn’t a vintage performance but nevertheless a well deserved win after overcoming a poor start with cohesion growing as the game went on. Special mention for Henry-Gilroy Davis and Mark Roe coming up from the 3’s and locking down the right side of defence all game.

0-4 = 3 points mighty 2’s roll on!