Narrow loss for M2

North Somerset II XI travelled to Bradley Stoke to face newly promoted South Gloucester in their first league game of the season. As the match settled down, it became clear that North had a real game on their hands with South Gloucester playing a well balanced passing style of hockey. The first half was evenly contested, but North fell behind to a goal from a slick passing move through their defence. Despite decent chances falling to the North attack, South Gloucester doubled their lead when a succession of short corners lead to a deflected flicked shot beating Rob O’Neil’s despairing dive.

North Somerset battled hard in the second half and a goal for the away team caused an uncomfortable last quarter of an hour for South Gloucester. The goal came from a short corner that John Venn injected, cunningly, to Courtney Sandford. Courtney overcame his surprise at becoming a receiver to slip the ball to Toby Cox who slap shotted the ball into the net.

This was the final goal in a very evenly contested game with the clock running down on fierce pressure from North Somerset. Poor finishing from North, on occasion, being the difference between the two sides . Notable misses came from Cox and Harry Croker. John Venn was North’s man of the match.