A lovely early autumn Saturday afternoon, and the mens 6s followed a triumphant mens 2s onto the hamstead hall academy pitch to face Barford Tigers. The pitch played a little slower than we are used to, and this led to several misplaced or under hit passes,. Encouraged, Barford were able to build pressure on the midfield and after winning a short corner converted for a 1-0 lead. Despite the setback Worcester battled away anda a great hard ball fired in the D was beautifully deflected by Andy Bedford for his first goal for the club.
So 1-1 at half time and all to play for.
Some tweaks at half time, with an emphasis on making sure the midfield remembered their defensive positioning and Worcester began the second half well. Very much against the run of play, one of the young Barford players did a great driving run and despite being pushed onto his expected "weaker" side, scored with an amazing reverse stick strike that was in the goal in a flash. Despite the set-back the 6s played their best 20 mins of hockey of this fledgling season, and go our just rewards when Pritch produced an amazing goal following a mazy run, beating several defenders calmly lifted the ball over the keeper who went down expecting a low shot. 2-2 with 6 mins left and a point was nothing more than we deserved, but things were not meant to be. Barford scored a really scrappy goal where following a series of deflections the ball ended up wide of the far post behind our keeper, giving another one of their youngsters the chance of a tap-in. Some concerns were expressed by the visitors over the build up, but once a goal is given, that is that.
So a 3-2 loss, but a really positive performance (especially second half),
Really good performances all round, but Andrew Pritchard just gets the MOM, with mentions for Mark G, Chris and Noah.
Dod, would have to be me for pushing their guy onto his reverse stick only for a thunderbolt to be unleashed.