Win against the 3s

The other match was at home at Gordano for the Men’s 2s taking on the Men’s 3s. Just as in Winterbourne the sun was blazing down on the home pitch and so we chose to play quarters to give a little rest bite from the heat and more opportunities for us to discuss as teams what we needed to work on and how to change our play. The first quarter had a lot of pressure from the 2s, which culminated in a hard strike into the D with Harry Croker poking out a stick and despite not knowing about it, deflected it into the top corner past a beaten Nick Round. As the 3s got a little more into their stride more attacking opportunities presented themselves and after David Colling took the ball from under Toby Cox’s nose he drove into the D and put the pass the Colin Ainsworth stood at the P spot. Keeper Rob O’Neill slid out to prevent the shot, but a swift pass back to Colling gave him an almost unguarded goal and he put it past the sole defender on the line to level the scores.

The second quarter showed a few changes by each team, but the ones by the 2s were far more successful and found much more freedom of movement and a couple of good passing moves resulted in goals for Jack Colling and another for Croker. It gave the 3s the opportunity to give debuts to Stan Edwell and Maciej Horodeczny who performed well.

After half time the 3s formed a more defensive shape and also saw the introduction of Charlie Dangerfield to test his fitness following injury. The quarter saw a bit of stalemate, but with more fine saves from Round in the 3s goal and less work for O’Neill in the 2s net.

The final quarter started showing the heat and as everyone flagged, the pressure started to show and Round was very busy until he felt a twinge and had to go off injured. This changed the game and although it continued in a fairly even manner, there were goals for the 2s through Jack Colling and Tom Broome into what was effectively an unguarded goal.

Although a win for the 2s it was a good game to try different things and see what works, especially as the League starts for the 3s next week against Old Bristolians C.