Match Reports
12/11/05
Reigate 5-1 Men's Veterans XI
Despite fielding arguably the strongest Veterans team for many years the clash with top of the table Reigate ended in bitter disappointment. Stand-in keeper Pawel had a storming second half but his late arrival meant that he had no time to warm up for the first half - this was to prove costly. In his defence it should be noted that he gallantly stepped into the team only 50 minutes before the game started and that included a 49 minute journey!
Brighton started brightly playing their simple brand of hockey, moving the ball smartly around the pitch. This generated plenty of action in the Reigate 25 but the home side's experienced defence meant that the D was well protected. Despite having the majority of possession and playing most of the first half in the Reigate half Brighton started the second half three (soft)goals down.
This imbalance was partially righted when Adrian Adams followed up a goal-line clearance from a Hamish vans Agnew strike. Brighton continued to play with spirit but in the end had Pawel to thank for restricting the final score to 5 - 1.
Plenty to learn from the experience and future games will have to see more focus on spreading the ball wide and adding some extra bite to the tackles. Andy Wood was outstanding in this respect and most of the team would learn from his no-nonsense approach to ball winning.
This weekend sees two games; the first a league match vs. Chichester and then a chance to avenge the earlier league defeat to Horsham in the Cup.