Match Reports
10/10/09
Holcombe 2a 2-3 Men's 2nd XI
The new look Brighton Men’s 2nd XI recovered from a 3-0 opening defeat away to Sutton Vallence with a hard fought and truly team building performance against Holcombe 2a’s. With Jamie Hendrick making a guest appearance on the side lines the team was lifted instantly with a show of his magical pearly whites.
Brighton started worryingly and they were unable to get the ball out of defence for the first 10 minutes. Even the mighty aerial power of Dan Hacking was unable to relieve the pressure and after the first few attempts he gave up and resorted to blaming the rest of the team. Brighton managed to string a few passes together and confidence grew with some nice link up play between Ravi Patel & Neel Sharma and it was Neel who opened the scoring after a perfectly weighted, defence splitting pass from Luke Williams left Neel with a 1-on-1 with the keeper. I have not seen a finish like it (until later on in the game), Neel could have chosen the easy pass for an open net but chose to go it alone and it was not the wrong decision. Cool and calm he skilfully slotted the ball pass the oncoming keeper, 1-0 Brighton.
It was no more than 5 minutes before Holcombe broke away and when Phil “I’m going see how many penalty strokes I can give away this season” Orriss felled the attacker the sympathetic umpire awarded a flick, 1-1.
Half time and Brighton had played some very impressive hockey and had created some very good chances for the young James Calloway who has broken into the 2’s side this year from the Rocks. The experience of John Childs and Oli Postlethwaite in support was showing glimpses of genius as Brighton attempted to take the lead once again. It was not long into the 2nd half that the hard work paid off and Brighton won a short corner. The aging, but still very nimble, Luke Williams stepped up and delivered a trademark goal that will continue to go down in the history books. He always looks really surprised every time he scores!
Once again Brighton’s lead was short lived and another soft penalty flick was awarded against Phil “I tried to get out of the way” Orriss. This boy really is after some sort of record! Once again Holcombe dispatched the ball past the Big O; 2-2
Brighton heads could have dropped; but not that day. Not since the Jamaican Bobsled Team entered the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary have I seen such will and determination. The drive for success was clear to see and it was shown when Simon Acott played the ball into the path of Luke Williams who skilfully beat 2 players at the top of the D and blasted the ball through the crowd and into the bottom corner; Pure sublime.
Brighton players were ecstatic but there were still 10 minutes to play. Neel Sharma decided that he needed a rest and thought the best way to do that was to get yellow carded for a quite cynical foul but not before offering the opposition their chance to equalise. The only stone wall flick (in my opinion) was awarded to Holcombe after a short corner strike found its way past Big O and deflected up off Neel’s flat stick straight into his chest and I agree, it would have gone in. Phil Orriss decided that this was his time to make amends and after playing a quick mind game with the Holcombe flicker, chose to gamble the right way and saved a very well taken flick. Thinking back it was almost like the slow motion save from Escape to Victory when Sylvester Stallone saves the penalty from the Germans – only better.
Final score 3-2 victory and I hope it’s the first of many.
Author: Luke Williams