Men's 3rd XI Vs Boots 5

Boot 5’s Vs SNHC 3’s
Captain Grozzy reporting. 

With the business end of the season rapidly approaching, South travelled the short distance to Lady Bay to face one of the two teams that could scupper the promotion plans of the table toppers.  2nd place Boots were keen to impose themselves having won 4 of their last 5, but South fielded a strong looking side so it was GAME ON! 

A minute’s applause preceded the game to honour a Boots member who had sadly passed away recently - this was impeccably observed by both sides. 

Some early skirmishes saw both sides try to grab the advantage, but South saw more of the ball and earned a number of penalty corners that didn’t quite come off for the normally clinical castle dwellers, Grozzy, Ellz and Cotters. 

The starting back line of Craigs Bingham & Lawson flanked the experienced centre pairing of Brainz & Batty who rarely looked in trouble during the first half.  This changed slightly following the first round of sub rotation as South overloaded in attack, lost the ball (a worryingly regular occurrence) leaving the freshly brought on Adam Board at Right Back exposed trying to cover 2-3 overlapping Boots players. The situation was dealt with and Adam grew more into the game, buoyed by his grit and determination to not be beaten! 

South’s midfield unit of Sam McNeil, Adam Sharpe, Harry Strutt, Chris Cotters and Will Bingham worked their legs off winning their battles, chasing down lost causes and creating attacking options for the “evergreen” strike partners of Ellz and Grozzy. 

Following another broken down South PC attempt, Boots countered, but were intercepted in the South 25, a swift 2 pass move dissected the Boots defence to find Batty who danced his way through 2 challenges and slipped the ball to Ellz to tuck the ball under the keeper for a hard earned lead. 0-1

More end to end hockey followed, the sticky and bouncy pitch leading to a few mistakes for both sides, but half time arrived with the visitors ahead. 

The words from the sages at half time was to just keep going and try to stop relinquishing possession with sloppy passes.. 

Straight from the pushback, South ignored this advice and conceded early in the second half from a crashed ball in and a deflection in front of keeper Tommy Hall into the roof of the net. 

This encouraged Boots who started to string more quality passes together and looked like they would take the lead.  South dug deep with more chances being saved by the Boots keeper who always seemed to be in the right spot.  South regained the lead with some slick passing, the ball finding its way to Cotters who deflected the ball towards goal on the reverse, yet again the keeper parried the ball away, but the skipper was on hand to tuck away a diving reverse sweep from a tight angle. 1-2

Boots heads dropped and the next passage of play saw the skipper earn his DoD award,  firstly for smashing a bouncing cross into the D for “6” from the p spot and then hitting the keeper with a weak shot from a yard out (sticky ball syndrome) - what a dunce. 

The game had a feel of impending doom as Boots earned a few PCs of their own, but dogged defending and excellent passing saw South earn their own PC 5 mins from time.  A clean drag flick from Cotters saw the ball fly just inside the left post to seal the win. 1-3.

South managed the final few minutes calmly and earned a last second PC that Grozzy drilled in to the backboard to put the cherry on the top of a largely composed match. 1-4

Final score: Boots 1 - South 4

43 points earned with 4 games to go, only Belper or Boots could reach this with 100% record from here on out, but both have vastly inferior goal difference.  One more point from the remaining 4 games will earn South the title! 

Another top of the table clash vs Belper at home next week - destiny awaits!