Close fought encounter ends in draw

With the first game out of the way, Bridgwater looked to for an improved result against an opposition that they knew was going to be tough. Bridgwater ended up with 15 this week, with a 16th. Weather this week was closer to acceptable hockey weather. James Harmer made his debut this week with Christian Durkin making an outfield appearance.

The game started evenly with both sides looking to get an early goal to settle the nerves. Bridgwater had a young side with some older heads at the back with Mark Hutter in goal, Dan Buller, James Kettlewell and Will Baldwin abley supporting. They were kept fairly busy by an experienced Y&S front line. The midfield of Oscar West, Aaron Turner, Toby Knight and Harvey Larcombe helped to feed the forwards of Andrew Larcombe, Steve Morrish (co captains privilege) and Steve Miller who all looked threatening in attack. Miller had set up Morrish who found the keeper, but it was Bridgwater who struck first, with Turner taking the ball through the Y&S middle, past the defence (about 8 players in total) to take a shot. The shot was saved by the keeper who kicked the ball to Morrish who gratefully accepted the reverse stick tap in. Bridgwater were in the ascendancy and pushed forward with a couple of changes as Durkin came on with Trystan Hudson coming close to his first senior goal. Liam Barrow came on at the back and looked solid with Harmer coming on, looking keen. But Y&S got themselves back into the game and got two quick goals which their experience and pressure did deserve.

Bridgwater changed their shape for the second half to counter the strength of Y&S and it seemed to work as it countered the pressure they were putting onto the defence. The game became open with a series of short corners for Bridgwater with West having a good strike, but it was Kettlewell who struck a goal with his first strike being saved, his second strike smacked the back of the net. Hudson, West, Barrow, H Larcombe and A Larcombe all came into the game and impressed as Miller was handed the ball and scrambled a third for Bridgwater. Turner and Knight looked solid in the middle, covering forward and back with Harmer trying to push forward. The game became wide and open as Bridgwater looked for another but with the experience of the opposition the counter was always going to come. Some dogged defence and top saves form Hutter kept them at bay but it was Y&S who equalised with 2 minutes to go as they made their number of shots and chances count.

After last weeks mauling and with a young inexperienced team this was a huge improvement in such a short space of time. Joint players of the match were Oscar West and Toby Knight with all of the young lads getting a vote or 2.