Worcester 2's come out on top against North Stafford

Worcester Vs. North Stafford 14/11/15

Worcester 2nds looking to continue their form from the past 2 weeks were in high spirit and everyone seemed to confident and would have been at full strength except for 1 absentee, Top scorer, Jeff Drake was at home resting the broken foot sustained in last week’s game.

Skipper Chris Watling got the warm up going and wanted to increase the intensity as the opposition were only 2 points behind in the league table. This high intensity produced the first talking point of the day when the returning Steve Grant fired the ball at goal where Tom Dalton misjudged the kick and caught the ball full tilt on the unprotected part of his foot. A Great save and even better roar of defiance (or pain but we couldn’t tell) either way we know that Tom drinks a bit more milk than Jeff as his foot didn’t break on impact. The next shot was fired in to the roof of the net from Joe Hughes which was enough for Dalton to take a quick break from the warm up and wipe away any remaining tears.

With Worcester now ready to start the game Watling gave his final words on how the 2nd team should play their hockey. The game started and Worcester were instantly on the front foot With Hooper and Joe Hughes linking in midfield making sharp passes and progress down the right side of the pitch Tom Allen passed the ball to Chris Watling who managed to pick out Matt Hooper free in the D on the penalty spot, Hooper produced a well-timed first time shot that turned in to a very fast accidental drag flick unfortunately this flick went high and a long way left of the goal which Joe Sullivan did well to avoid. A brief conversation afterwards and everyone agreed that Joe Sullivan should be finishing those sorts of passes.

Shortly after that big miss Worcester were back on top of the game again passing around the staffs players like cones. Sam Glass appeared on the right and with his familiar style jinked this way and that beating the North Staffs midfield and defence with ease until he met their Sweeper who’s superior physic was able to bring Glass’s run to an earth shattering halt. Sam slightly over ran the ball and only looked up once he had ran in to, what can only be described as the “BIG LAD’s” shadow and with both players belly to belly Sam was first to hit the deck. The ball broke free and Oli Davis managed to get the ball in the D which hit a North staffs foot for a Worcester short corner. The umpire halted play as Sam Glass was still on the floor and look to be struggling but he soon got to his feet and looked to put a flag in the summit of the mountain he had just ran in to.
The resulting short corner was despatched by the Skipper Watling smashing the ball home from a well worked routine. 1-0 Worcester

With Worcester now on top the North Staffs were getting a bit of joy attacking the Worcester defence but each attack was dealt with in relaxed fashion with Worcester taking control of possession and then going back on the attack with fine distribution from Tom Allen, Max Braddick and James Neal again playing the sweeper role. One of these attacks sent Ben Martin on a run managing to beat the defender and transfer the ball out right but North Staffs were able to turn the ball over and attack the Worcester D Tom Dalton producing a fine sliding kick to keep the ball out, in the crowd of sticks the ball broke free to a staffs player who hit a first time shot Dalton had managed to get back up and dived to his right and block the rising shot, This was yet another fantastic double save and fast becoming a trademark of his season. This was made even better when we realised his vision was still blurred from the tears in eyes from the stinging shot from Steve Grant in the warm up. From this Staffs attack the ball came to the top of the D where Hooper was able to make ground a slide the ball left into Oli Davis who in turn passed to Oli Ranscombe on the right of the pitch. Ranscombe now in the D was able to hit a rocket into the roof of the staffs goal 2-0 Worcester.

Oli Davis and Ben Martin linked a number of times to free up Davis for a 1 on 1 with the keeper. Oli got the ball under control and was able to set himself ready to make the strike to make it 3-0 and just as he was about to score the he changed his mind and tried to play a one two with staffs keeper. Oli Davis played his part perfectly and passed the ball straight to the keepers right foot however the keeper made an error and kicked the ball to safety. Unlucky Oli!

North staffs had a period of pressure following that double save from Tom and most of the attacks were dealt with ease but Staffs were able to find a Worcester foot in the D for their 2nd corner of the game. The ball came out and was slipped to the far post where Max Braddick was waiting by the post in perfect position to stop the attack, or so we thought, Actually Max had decided to take a quick power nap whilst leaning on the post this allowed the staffs player to stroll in and tap the ball home with a simple deflection to make it 2-1. Max only realised once the half time whistle went shortly after and Worcester were able to gently wake him from his dreams.

Joe Hughes and Ben Martin deserve a mention for commendable work rate.

Half time 2-1 Worcester Chris Watling gave a mixed team talk which to sum up in 2 words would be “Top Bins” …… We don’t know either??

The second half started and again Sam glass who had fully recovered from his first half expedition was running riot with his pace and power he was able to find himself on the end of a Watling pass which fell perfectly to his open stick where the crowd fell silent with anticipation as it was a certain goal all he had to do was hit the ball but NO…… Sam saw an opportunity to drag to ball to his reverse side past 2 staffs defenders, which he did with aplomb, pick his spot to hit the reverse which now had to miss 2 more defenders and now beat the keeper as well to score and with his sights firmly set on the top corner he wound up the reverse stick shot and produced and perfect air shot and a free hit for North Staffs.

The work rate that Joe Hughes had put in the first half was starting to take its toll on Joe as he was still getting up and down the pitch but a little bit slower each time but was still able to free up Steve grant to make it 3-1 with a very cool finish slotting the ball home with ease. Worcester playing with confidence soon made it 4-1 with Oli Davis smashing the ball home with another excellent passing move which touched nearly every Worcester player except Max and Joe who seemed to be having a competition on who could pay the least amount of attention to the game they were playing in (After a team vote Max was the winner).

James Neal who was having another fantastic game at Sweeper and was last week’s man of the match placed the ball for a free hit had plenty of options to hit a Worcester player but he choose to ignore Matt Hooper, Tom Allen and Max Braddick who were all free and passed the ball 5 yards to the very happy north staffs centre forward who ran in to the D and played a simple pass to the right to beat the on rushing Dalton and make it 4-2. James was told not to worry about it and try to pass to his own team mates first if at all possible.

Chris Watling who was lost for words with what had just happened did manage to tell James that it would be OK, OK. Then went on a one man rampage taking the ball up the pitch and into the staffs D and after watching Oli Davis try to play a 1, 2 with norths staffs keeper thought he would show him how it should be done. His first shot/pass went to the defender who in turn gave it back to Watling and moved out of the way, another shot/pass to the 2nd staffs defender and once more a pass back to Watling, with the sweeper deciding to also move out of the way he only had to beat the keeper. Now Watling brimming with confidence decided to ignore the calls of Joe Sullivan & Matt Hooper who were wide open and perfectly position to score the 5th Worcester goal and try to complete the third 1, 2 of the move and really rub Oli’s nose in it and passed the ball tamely to the staffs keeper (this definitely didn’t look like a shot) the keeper tried to oblige and kick it back to Watling who by this point was so tired couldn’t collect the ball and wasn’t able finish the move off. Some say this was very greedy but I would say that he looked at the options and thought Hooper had missed from 5 yards and that Joe Sullivan failed to put that same missed shot from Hooper in the goal, which was a routine tap in that Jeff Drake would have converted by the way. Joe Sullivan who had put another good performance in had a few choice words for his skipper for not passing him the ball. Quite right too!

This left the final bit of action to come from Sam Glass who latched on to a Ben Martin pass on the top of the D and despatched the reverse stick strike with ease we think that this was due to all the staffs players stopping thinking that he’ll never score that after the first air shot….. How wrong they were Sam Glass hit the reverse with power and precision finding the bottom corner of the Staffs goal to finish the Game 5-2 to Worcester.

Sam who many thought would win man of the match was narrowly beat to the award by Oli Davis well done Oli.

Sam however didn’t go home empty handed and took the second best award of the day and will be making his team mates something nice to eat next week. Unlucky Sam!