Men's 4
Matches
Sat 22 Feb 2020  ·  South East 2
Bridgwater Hockey Club
Men's 4
5
4
Minehead B
Close fought win

Close fought win

alan baldwin23 Feb 2020 - 23:00
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https://www.bridgwaterhc.co.uk

Great reward for a great effort

After last week's rain soaked game it was a delight to play in cold but mild conditions at home. There were a couple of changes to the team this week, with Phil Pyke and Will Marchent-Saunders making their return to the playing squad.

Bridgwater stated with pace and power looking for a result against a team who were also bottom of the table. Bridgwater were on the front foot with Steve Miller and Marchent-Saunders combining well up front. Trystan Hudson and Toby Knight started well on the wings with Daniel James-Stone and James Garner holding well in the middle with Pyke playing just behind. James-Stone battled his way into the ‘D’ to get the first goal of the game and Bridgwater looked strong. But then the tide changed as despite their best effort Christian Durkin, James Kettlewell, Ben Stone and Steve Morrish couldn’t keep a good Minehead counter out. Then as seems to be mandatory Bridgwater switched off completely for five minutes conceding two more well-worked goals from a Minehead team who looked well up for the challenge. Despite a good block on the line by Pyke, a fourth was scored, however it chalked off due an infringement in the build up, which gave Bridgwater a life line.

By this point Luke Otley had come on to help shore up the defence, James Harmer was on, running himself and the opposition ragged with Kieran Barrow and Oscar West running the wing play. Minehead came very close to extending their lead but a Bridgwater breakaway meant that Merchant-Saunders found himself one on one with the keeper and he took the chance with aplomb. Bridgwater were now in the ascendancy but couldn’t capitalise as Miller couldn’t quite score his opportunity.

The score at the half was 3-2 to the opposition and the home side knew it could have been more to MInehead. A small tweak in attitude was needed and this was shown as Garner came out of the blocks in the second half on fire. There a new fire and passion in the Bridgwater team and even though Minehead still looked more than handy on the break, Bridgwater looked the most likely to score. Stone did take his chance from a short corner to equalise, with Marchent-Saunders scoring the go ahead goal. West, Hudson, Barrow and Knight all showed that they can be the future of the club as they battled so hard to push for only a second win of the season. Minehead didn’t give up as Durkin made a key save, but Minehead scored a well worked equaliser. Both teams were now looking to grab a win. With five minutes to go Stone fired home a second short corner, but the game was far from over - both teams went end to end, with the Minehead keeper making two great saves, one of which denied Barrow a well worked goal. Harmer came so close to getting his first goal but it narrowly went wide of the post.

As the final whistle went Bridgwater could celebrate a hard fought second win of the season. With 17 goals shared between these two teams over two games it was always going to be a close game. Man of the Match went to James Harmer as the plucky fella just continues to improve.

Match details

Match date

Sat 22 Feb 2020

Kickoff

12:15

Competition

South East 2
Team overview
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