Men's 1st Team Vs West Bromwich 3rds

West Bromwich M3s  0 - 10 CoBHC Men’s 1stXI

Goal Scorers: Noor Zaman x4, Ashraf Baig x3, Jeevan Chagger x1, Alex Makepeace x1, Kyle Letts x1

Our M1s were visitors to West Brom in their first game of 2022. With a few players unavailable, the squad depth came into play with others rotating into the side that was hit by Covid before the winter break. The visitors started off brightly with Alex playing in Kyle down the right who played an inviting ball across the face of goal, Jeevan running at an empty net mistiming his strike as it trickled off the backline. The visitors would continue to press and search for the opener, Jeevan dribbling into the D and slipping the ball back post to Noor but the ball bounced over his stick and out. Ashraf who was making his return to the Club's 1stXI had a particularly strong game, his early deflections testing the keeper but unable to find the back of the net. The defensive trio of David, Scott, and Noah were rarely tested, often pressing high onto the halfway line to encourage the many attacks that the visitors set up. A quick side-line ball from David was met by Alex who played a clever 3D trick past his defender to fire the ball into the "D" met by a faint deflection by Ash who opened the scoring. 

The visitors looked to extend their lead and did so very quickly, Jeevan capitalising on a missed 16 yard hit, running into the circle, evading 2 defenders, and neatly slotting home between the keeper's legs. With the halftime whistle approaching, there was enough time for a smart team goal. Noah to Scott, who placed it wide for David, with a nice first-time ball into the middle with Alex. A quick combination of passes with Zach, Abbasi, and Ash saw Jeevan then play a first-time ball into Alex who found himself in space from Kyle and Noor dragging out the defenders, a quick evasion of a player and into the circle, Alex crashed home the third just before the half time whistle.

Half-time and the team was relatively upbeat and encouraged to continue playing some free-flowing hockey. Alex, Abbasi, and Zach would be instrumental in cutting out the through balls that West Brom looked for, setting up the attacks, and pressing the hosts with 6 or 7 in attack most times. The sequence of goal scorers cannot be accurately remembered but Ash completed a well-earned hat-trick, Noor found 4 and Kyle added a final goal late on to help the M1s break the 10 goal deadlock they didn't achieve in the first half of the season. Despite having no subs and the first game of hockey in over 1 month, the M1s did not look out of place as they put pressure at the top of the league, 5 points off first place and 9 clear of third place.

No game next week but the M1s return in a fortnight Away at Stratford 4s