Match Reports
14/02/09
Spencer (Wandsworth) 3-3 Men's 1st XI
Salter set sights on promotion next season
Brighton and Hove coach Hugh Salter is plotting a promotion push - next season. The struggling Men’s 1st team are still embroiled in a relegation battle but there were signs in last Saturday’s 3-3 draw away at Spencer that Salter’s new-look side are about to turn the corner.
He said: “We weren’t scoring goals, so in the January window I tried to rectify that and bring in some players, other parts of the team possibly needed strengthening as well, particularly the ageing central defence that had a tendency to kick the ball and pass the ball to opposition centre forwards”
The acquisitions of Sam Rose, Gregg Davis and the return of Gareth Lendrum from retirement (the rumour is that Bec’s forced him to come back) has provided the team with fresh impetus to get themselves out of the mire that they dug before Christmas.
Since Christmas the team have only lost to league leaders Fareham and have played with more confidence and aggression which was evident on Saturday against Spencer.
Their was a sense of expectancy in the air before the game and all the pre match omens were good, Sam Rose has decided to show up this week, Dickie B hadn’t, Dave Bocky Hugh was no longer dressing like Kenny, Ahmed still hadn’t got any so was pumped up and ready to go, moonie had forgotten the away shirts so we had no option but to wear the “lucky” home kit and also we discovered that Kevie was no longer the shortest captain in the league and had found a fellow Ewok to bond with.
Brighton started well and immediately looked dangerous playing quick, direct hockey as directed by Matt McSalter in the pre-game team talk. With Gareth providing the usual heavy artillery at the back and finding plenty of gaps through the Spencer press the Brighton forwards were for once able to boast that they got more touches in a half than the number of STI’s currently being carried by Deller, however 4 touches each is still not particularly impressive. None the less from one break a short corner was won and our all new African Short Corner routine was deployed, their mumbling in Afrikaans seemed to confuse the Spencer Keeper as he proceeded to let Greggy’s drag flick straight through his gloves, a flick that even Psycho would have saved.
Buoyed by the early goal that has so often eluded them this season Brighton continued to push on and press Spencer, yet this was to prove their undoing as Spencer showed why they are in the top half of the league scoring 3 goals on the break before half time. The first saw an outrageous piece of showboat skill from the Spencer forward flip the ball one handed nonchalantly over a charging DBP and finish into the empty goal whilst the second was a great drag flick into the top right corner. The third you might want to ask DBP about so that he can tell you how he missed it!!
So Brighton went into half time 3-1 down and understandably downbeat having seemingly thrown away a lead for another game this season. However a rousing team talk from little skip who was obviously still upbeat after seeing Celine Dion in concert the night before and finding out that for the first time he had a date on valentines day got the team going again and they managed to get a goal back at the start of the second half. A great piece of individual skill from Sambo resulting in him slotting the ball in the bottom corner and proving why he benched for OG 2’s.
Back in the game Brighton continued to play well and search for the equaliser, there efforts though were undermined by 3 yellow cards for which we won’t name names, but anybody who has seen the first team play this season can probably guess 2 of the people that were sent off and what they were sent off for. Needless to say they were fined appropriately and now both owe the fines kitty over £50 each due to repeated indiscipline.
Luckily Spencer also had a player binned and whilst the game was reduced to 10 vs 9 Spencer had chances to finish the game off but found the defence and DBP in great form, they were also aided by Salter doing a Dickie B and saving the ball on the line with his foot, fortunately though the Umpire failed to see this possibly because of the ginger glow emanating from Salter’s Head.
With 15 minutes to go Brighton were getting desperate before the Mbolue Tribe worked there voodoo magic from a short corner again with Greggy getting his second of the game and managing to “dip” his drag flick on purpose under the keepers arm. Cue a frantic final 10 minutes with both teams looking to take all 3 points, neither side manage to create anything clear cut though despite the end to end action and a draw was probably a fair reflection of the game.
For Brighton it was definitely a case of a point gained as opposed to 2 lost unlike the draws in previous weeks against the poorer teams in the league, especially Ashford.