Men's 1st Team Vs Barlaston

This week’s hockey report :

YARDLEY   2        BARLASTON    3

In an eventful game, Yardley came off second best in this battle of the basement two in the Warwick Printing Hockey League West Midlands Division 1.

The visitors were delayed on the motorway and so the start was much delayed. Both teams were fairly even in the early stages as each jostled for some supremacy.  Yardley’s keeper was called into action first and managed to keep Barlaston at bay.  A disputed decision by the umpire led to a Yardley free hit being changed to a short corner followed straightaway by  a series of further efforts. It was third time lucky as skipper Zach Jarvis scored a well taken goal to give the home side the lead. Barlaston fought back and slack Yardley defending enabled them to draw level. Both teams enjoyed brief periods of pressure  before half time but there was no further score before the break.

Yardley took the game to their opponents early in the second half and a good clearance from defence followed by a very speedy right wing run and cross led to a good chance for Noor Zaman but his effort was well smothered by the keeper. There followed a somewhat bizarre period of play which included the Barlaston goalkeeper receiving a yellow card for pushing an opponent and then a hold up whilst a replacement keeper padded up. Immediately, Yardley edged ahead for the second time when James Livingston made no mistake from a well taken short corner. Barlaston seemed to be stung into action and their ten men created several chances and forced Neal Makepeace in to some brilliant save, including one superb parry for the ball to rebound off the crossbar from a seemingly goal-bound effort. Whilst still a man down, Barlaston equalised again, this time from well-worked short corner. Yardley were guilty of surrendering too much space in midfield and being very wasteful with their distribution. There followed another hold up when the Barlaston keeper was allowed back and had to pad up again. However, back to full strength the visitors forged ahead looking the more likely to grab the winner. And so it proved. The winner came late on from a somewhat scrambled effort at defence resulting in a simple but well taken goal.

Yardley will feel very frustrated at losing this game, but in the end the visitors deserved the three points to enable them to move up a place in the league.