Match Reports
01/02/09
Richmond 0-2 Men's 2nd XI
I woke up this morning with a massive hangover to celebrate a great sporting occasion from the day before. Yes, Steve Spears is now a Level 1 Hockey Coach.
I’m sure I could talk all day about this fact however I have been given another job to do which is write a match report from the Men’s 2xi Quarter Final match against Richmond so here goes…
The coach was packed with high spirits and a buzzing atmosphere not even Thompo and Jamie Hendricks could ruin. Kenny looked like he had gone 12 rounds with Mike Tyson as did Moon (but that’s because he is really ugly).
Coach Carter was being played on the way up, I only have one thing to say about that - Rich who?????
The game started at a high pace, Richmond who play in a very strong London League had some skilful players in Midfield and a well organised defence. Brighton came from a massive victory the day before against promotion chasing West Hampstead and started the game looking to play the quick attacking hockey that has become expected of the unbeaten league leaders this season.
Forwards Ollie Postelthwaite and Mike Deller-Merricks managed to steal lots of ball on the final third of the pitch and Deller-Merricks was on fire creating lots of space for himself beating two defenders and hitting a shot from the right hand side of the D across the goal going marginally wide.
Brighton’s first goal came from Tom Langston winning the ball in the centre of the park breaking forward moving it left to Kenny Rogers who injected across the penalty spot for Jon Tu to one-touch deflect the ball to the back post for Ross Hardwick to roll the ball into an empty goal. The crowd went wild and Jamie Hendricks smiled for the first time in 2009.
Richmond had their chances; most of which came from short-corners but goal-keeper Neil Burlington and number 1 runner Dermot Cameron were more than up to the task.
Half time came and Coach Dan Hore had nothing bad to say about the performance - this is a credit to the side (excluding Alan McGuinness) as his standards have been set very high for the 2nd team.
The second half Brighton played with a great confidence although Richmond did have chances, forcing a drag flick save from Burlington and a well worked move around the base line that Burlington had to stretch to his bottom left corner to save.
Brighton had lots of the possession and both of the Yellow cards. First was Jon Tu for not standing 5 Yards from a free hit. This would usually be surprising as he never really gets 5 yards close to his man but as this was his swan song before going travelling he had a very good game.
Brighton started to press Richmond and won a short corner, Dan Hore called the next short corner during the half time team talk. Jon Tu stepped up and caught his drag flick perfectly unfortunately he thought we were playing £10 for the bar so it did not go in.
A couple of minutes later another short corner was won and up stepped Tu again for the flick. The Keeper obviously realised the danger so stayed up ready to take it with his glove. However, Tu did not connect as well with this one and the legendary Drag Bobble managed to be the defeating of Richmond.
There was enough time for Brighton to let Richmond back into the game but Brighton have learned how to keep a two goal lead - get Hacking sent off.
The final whistle went with Hardwick and Tu having a showboat competition in the Richmond right hand corner of the pitch.
A great performance by everyone and a special thanks to the supporters for making the journey to Richmond to support the team. I have just learned that the next round is the day after the Credit Crunch social night - mines a shot of Grammer Dansk.
Written by:
Dan Hore