Men's 1st Team Vs Bloxwich

Yardley’s season of woe continued in dramatic fashion against promotion hopefuls Bloxwich in the Warwick Printing Hockey League West Midlands Division 1. Once again, injuries and work commitments forced Yardley to field a somewhat patched up side against their very lively and well organised visitors. Bloxwich thought that Christmas had come early as they claimed an easy win against the bottom club.

The Yardley keeper, Neal Makepeace, was called into action within the first minute as the visitors stormed onto the attack right from the start. His brilliant save was only the start of the onslaught. Woeful defending in front of him left him unable to do anything about the four goals that flew in inside the first ten minutes. Skipper Zach Jarvis and fellow midfielder, Gavin Hetherington fought manly to get Yardley back into the game but they were unable to prevent three more goals before half time.

The second half started off in much the same vein with Bloxwich forcing the pace. Then for some reason they seemed to take their foot off the throttle and allow Yardley to enjoy a period of good possession during which some useful half chances were created, but to no avail. Yardley’s hard worked defence were glad of this brief respite with young Alex Makepeace working very hard.  Neal Makepeace was again performing heroics in goal in an effort to keep the score down. However, a late onslaught saw a flurry of late goals to complete a most emphatic victory to keep Bloxwich well on course for a promotion spot.

Yardley will be glad of the mid-season break and will hope that Santa will bring some good news on the injury front in the hope of a better showing during the second half of the season.