Great win - safe from relegation

Match report from Tom Appleford

North Somerset played at home this weekend against Old Bristolians A who were second in the league. North got in a good warm up and where well prepared for the tough game ahead of them. The game started with North under a lot of pressure but with the defensive midfield pair of Toby Cox and Tom Appleford coping well they quickly found themselves apply some pressure back and gained the upper hand a few minutes into the first half with Mike Hooper scoring the first goal for North putting them 1 up. Old B’s looked shocked by the early goal from North and didn’t know how to deal with how North Somerset where playing. A few minutes before the end of the half Toby gave away a penalty flick however Rob outwitted the striker and he missed the flick .After North playing a good half and scoring another goal the first half concluded 2-0 to the home team.
Old Bristolians looked fired up for the second half as they were expecting an easy win, however North played excellent defensive hockey and the midfield tightly marked the Old B’s players and stopped them in their tracks. North changed up their game plan and started to play more of an counter attacking style of play and invited Old B’s to attack. However North gave no ground and on a counter attack North converted another goal which gave them a 3-0 lead. Old Bristolians where still not out of this game yet as they applied even more pressure after the goal. Eventually after a scrappy bit of play inside the D the Old B’s striker poked it in the goal. North got the game underway straight away with some composure and started to revert to a more of a controlling style of play and wanted to shut out any chance of Old B’s coming back into the game. This didn’t work and Old B’s scores another scrappy goal in the D. North got the game under way and started to play more possession hockey, the defence started to recycle the ball more and hold the ball and try and drag a result out, however after a quick counter attack North got a short corner, the ball got pulled out and a slip left which allowed Harry Croker to get into a goal scoring opportunity which he converted into a goal, that gave North a big boost and gave them some confidence to start again. The game started again and North started to play a more defensive play and control the game a little more as there were only 10 minutes until the end of the game and they were 4:2 up. Old B’s started to show why they were 2nd in the table and started to play some good hockey and play around Norths defence and played a crash play in and got a tap in around Rob. North’s head didn’t drop and continued to fight as they were still in the lead. North knew if they could keep the lead they would guarantee their place in the league. After North where put under pressure they hit a crash ball up the field to Mike Hooper who beat a defender and hit a wonder strike bottom left to secure the 3 points for North. The game ended 5:3 to North Somerset.