Men's 2nd XI Vs Mansfield 3

Match report- Gary Pickering reporting :
The Mighty 2’s 3-0 Mansfield 3’s

Apparently I get the pleasure of writing the match report because my shin pad saved me from an almost certain fractured shin bone!

At a blowy but bright Bingham the mighty 2’s were looking for another clean sheet, a few goals and another 3 points. We also had Hamza Adamjee , Finn Collins , Mark Roe and Henry Gilroy Davis stepping up to support the team as squad members were required higher up the club. Thank you boys!

The plan as always was simple, play our game, work hard for the team and respect possession. The game throughout did not flow for us, we were unable to press our game and were left frustrated by Mansfield’s determination to disrupt our passing game.

We struggled to generate any meaningful chances, (especially with Ian Lane’s £3 charity shop bargain hockey stick proving why it was such a low price with a generous spraying of misplaced passes directly to the opposition) until Finn came onto the pitch and demonstrated the simple pass and move technique. His involvement lead to the first goal, a nice pass into the D deflected into the roof of the net by Ellz.

We got a second goal before halftime following a good stop from their keeper, that come to Stuart Croston ‘Grozzy’, who saw the gap and slotted into the top corner nicely with a reverse flick . Sam Lane made some good stops to ensure we went in 2-0 at H/T.

The second half continued much like the first, a rather scrappy, stop / start game keeping the umpires busy.

Following some nice passing play, Nathan Gerrard drove into their D, went round the keeper and was felled by 3 Mansfield defenders, and only won a short. (The jury was out as to why this wasn’t a flick, but an unsighted Ray could only blow what he saw). The injection came out to me on my open stick side, fortunately I controlled, struck it sweet and it flew between the keepers legs straight into the backboard, prompting Mansfield players to claim the ball never left the D, which it totally did. 3-0.

Mansfield had good spells of possession and had some decent chances, but once again Sam was solid for yet another clean sheet. (3 in a row - 7 for the season so far)

A hard fought win, not pretty but 3 points and second place in our division is our reward.

Many thanks to both Ray and Dick as it was probably not the most enjoyable game to play or umpire!

Next week we have Boots, who are top and on a very good run, a win could mean the path to promotion!??