Men's 1st Team Vs West Bromwich

This week’s hockey report :

WEST BROMWICH   3     YARDLEY    0

Playing conditions were difficult for both teams in this Warwick Printing Hockey League West Midlands Division 1 game.

Yardley did themselves no favours either by starting with only ten men. However, both teams managed to create early chances but the blustery conditions were not helping either side and both found it difficult to hear the umpires’ whistle at times. West Bromwich forced the Yardley keeper, Neal Makepeace, into several saves. The old adage of ‘playing to the whistle’ led to Yardley falling behind, thinking an infringement had occurred they stopped playing, but West Bromwich took advantage of this and carried on to score with a low shot into the left hand corner of the goal. Back to full compliment after a late arrival, Yardley began to ask a few more questions and went close on several occasions but could not make anything count before the break. Junaid Ali posed a constant threat with his excellent runs along the right wing and skipper, Zach Jarvis, went close with a one on one with the West Brom keeper who managed to keep out his effort.

West Brom seemed to step up a gear in the second period and forced many more saves from the visiting keeper. The home team’s second goal came from a rebound off the keeper’s pads. A third, scored from a great reverse shot after the forward beat two advancing defenders. Yardley continued to push on to try to get back into the game but to no avail. Their spirited efforts left them feeling disappointed not to have got themselves on to the score-sheet. In spite of the result, a good performance against a team looking for a promotion spot in the league.

Yardley complete the first half of the league campaign this week with a home game against Pershore.

Report sent in by Peter Brainch (Publicity Officer and Club Secretary)