Worcester head into Christmas with a 4-2 win against Warwick

Worcester vs. Warwick

Result 4-2

This week’s game had been highly anticipated as not only was is the last game of the first half of the season where the 2nds would be joint top as long as we took 3 points from the game, it was also the Christmas night out and the team would find out who would take the honour of winning the golden oven gloves. With 4 people all having to bake a cakes the pressure was on.

Tuesday night the preparations started for Saturdays game and with a few phone calls around the team the beers were chosen for the curry night. The team also found out about a special romance that may blossom in the months to come.

Wednesday night in a friendly game between 2 Worcester sides gave Watling a final chance to select his line up for Saturdays game James Neal seemed to raise his game and was a standout performer in the match and seemed to enjoy telling all his 2s team mates how good he was. He nearly ended Hooper’s season. James picked up the ball and positioned it for his usual slingshot pass, the same pass that had broken Jeff Drakes Foot early on this season from 60 yards away, I might add. This pass left James Neal’s stick and rocketed towards Hooper knee high who was about 10 yards away. With Hooper taking evasive action he caught the ball full on the shins. With the a moment of silence then a few chuckles from his team mates Hooper stood up and pretended that it didn’t hurt. We all know he was screaming inside but with not a flicker of emotion shown the game carried on. All we know is that Hooper must drink a little more milk than Jeff drake as no bones were shattered on impact.

Saturday came and with a 15 man squad for the game Watling started to go through the options and formations to accommodate all the players. this was eased slightly by the 1st team taking Ollie Davis who we later found out not only scored 2 goals but got the man of the match award as well, Well done OD.

The start of the game was delayed slightly due Warwick having a few players stuck on the motorway so Worcester were keen to start with high intensity to hit the unprepared Warwick players early. This plan seemed to work as the game started it was all Worcester in the opening minutes and with some fine play from James Neal, Puggy and Henry Jeff’s Worcester won their first short corner. Watling called it and struck the ball goal wards but a rather tame strike was dealt with by Warwick and pushed away to safety. The pressure continued and with Joe Sullivan causing problems he managed to win a second short. This came to the top but off target and with Hooper adjusting to his right played the ball to Joe Sullivan who worked a space and then slotted the ball home. For the second time this season his dad had watched young Joe score a well-earned goal with celebrations going on Joe’s dad managed to stay fairly reserved, by this time Joe was already telling his brother just how good he is, heard saying “follow that then Dom… Again!”.

This seemed to spark Warwick into life and with a couple of attacks in to the Worcester half caught Worcester off guard and they were able to capitalise on a rare mistake and get the game level 1-1. With Worcester now struggling to hold the ball Warwick found confidence were pressuring the Worcester defence with Tom Allen, James Neal and Joe Hughes all covering the roaming Watling and keeping the Warwick forwards away from Dalton. This was again mainly due to the excellent communication from Dalton making sure everyone was marking a man.

Having weathered the storm Worcester again started to find more possession and with Joe Hughes spraying the ball round both left and right Worcester started to regain control of the ball. the ball now moving at pace found Puggy on the right hand side of the pitch who managed to get the ball near the D and cross, This cross was met by the on rushing Hooper who despatch the ball into the Warwick goal with a well-timed one handed reverse. We later realised a new form of running had been invented. Hooper had travelled 20 yards in what was now described as squat-running with the back of stick worn away from getting his stick down early but this didn’t matter as the drought had ended. His first goal of the season had come.

Henry Jeff’s tried to get in on the action but managed to miss an open goal from 2 yards when the ball was crossed by Dom Sullivan following a nice move down the right from Watling and Sam Glass. Dom Sullivan now trying to wrestle the DOD from Henry managed to first put the ball just wide of the left post after making room to shoot at close range then minutes later missing the right post from even closer to the goal. Not to be out done by Watling who had now returned to his defensive duty for a Warwick short corner. With Worcester poised and ready to defend the short corner came out and was struck with force Dalton reacted and kicked the ball straight in to Watling’s Chops with a fair bit of force, lucky for Watling he was wearing his face mask and sustained no damage to his head the ball did ricochet on to his shoulder, this seems to have taken a few years off Watlings life who now looks 27 and was now leading contender for DOD. Dalton without a care in the world for Watling managed to react to make a double save to stop the rebound that came off Watling. Once the ball had gone out for a long corner. Dalton showed his tender side and gently stroked Watling’s face and said “get out the way next time, I called for that”

Half Time 2-1

The second half began and followed the trend of the first half with mainly Worcester in control but the odd spell of Warwick possession. Warwick managed to win another couple of shorts but they were handled with ease by the back 4. On the next Worcester break the high in the Warwick half the play broke down and Warwick played a fast long ball back towards their forward. Tom Allen who was next to his man but wasn’t really paying attention and looked like he was baton twirling. With a quick shout from his team mate Tom tried to find the right end of the stick to hold and tackle his man. This didn’t go well and the forward had the better of him. Tom made ground to recover and as the forward unleased a rapid shot towards goal Tom found himself between the goal and ball as he curled up turned his back and prayed not to be hit, somehow the ball hit his stick as he tried to hide behind it. The ball dropped to the floor and Tom calmly walked away and passed the ball on just like he meant it.

Henry Jeff’s was using a nice balance anti and normal skill which Puggy had tuned into, this allowed them to break away and restore a 2 goal lead to Worcester. Again this came from fine play from the Sullivan brothers passing and moving from deep in the Worcester.

Warwick then managed to steal a goal out of nothing… Well when I say nothing…. Again with Warwick only trying to hit long ball fast break attacks they launched a ball up field and Joe Hughes stepped in front of his man and met the ball first, he stopped the ball dead then stopped himself and didn’t restart. The Warwick forward linked up well with his team mate and grabbed a goal. Joe was reset by his team mates but was later heard saying “amigo or no amigo” then seen slapping Watling on the cheek.

The final action came when Worcester who saw out the game in style camped in the opponents half of the pitch and peppering the Warwick D, they finally broke the defensive line from a Hooper free hit linking with Ollie Ranscombe who moved in to the D and passed the ball to Dom Sullivan who tried to hit the middle of his last 2 shots but the Keeper saved well and as the ball trickled towards the goal Steve Grant was on hand to steal the goal and finish the game off.

4-2 Worcester to keep them joint top of the league at the half way point.

The Team now had a decision to make about who would wear the golden oven gloves this award went to Tom Allen for a rather bad attempt at baking.

Man of the Match was awarded to Matthew Hooper

DOD was Joe Hughes for a rather unfortunate mistake and being rebooted in Spanish.