Men's 2nd Team Vs Finchfield 6ths

Finchfield Development 2 – 2 CoB Men’s 2nds

Goal scorers :-Robin Stanley & Sean Brookes

Last game of the season and effectively this game was classed as a friendly as no points can be won (or lost) as Finchfield are a development team.

As the home team are classed as development, they can effectively and legally double up players to benefit their young players. This was what they did, so 3/4 players from Division 9 supported the usual team giving it a completely different feel to the 10-0 victory to CoBHC at our place earlier in the season. Before our game we watched the Central West Division 9 game these players came from and in all honesty our team would not look out of place in this division next season, (our promotional next step). If injuries hadn’t affected our team in the final weeks of the season, we would definitely have been pushing for the sole promotion slot even though we probably wouldn’t have beaten the next best team Kingswinford (like our Firsts have done against Barford Tigers).

This week was a testament to our big squad as we had two players out with long term injuries and six players with work or studying commitments. A total of eight players unavailable, and no first team support. But the team still managed to field a strong and capable eleven.

The game started a little late as the Division 9 game had a few incidents delaying our warm ups and drills. This may have led to the poor start, with the home team bossing the first ten minutes. The defence of Matt, Stan and Jahed protected the keeper Paul, but it quickly became apparent this would be no walkover like last time out against them, when we won 10-0.  

The stubborn nature of the visitors and their never say die attitude soon got them back on an even keel. The midfield of Jordan, Munib and Ben started to get more possession and managed to get the wingers of Sean and Lindani involved in good attacking plays.  The home team had to make last minute clearances and the keeper was tested a couple of times. Eventually the visitors took the lead from a short corner. Jordan pushed out to Stan who drifted wide right to bypass the fast- approaching defenders, then finding space from a narrow angle rifled his shot onto the far backboard.

The home team returned with a similar goal five minutes later after a long period of pressure. The game went into half time 1-1.

The visitors lost a lot of shape discipline towards the end of the half with players rotating positions to get respite in the warm spring afternoon sunshine. Also, composure in the ball was difficult and possession was given away easily.

The second half started very evenly and both teams got good chances to score. It was end to end stuff as there was little midfield support by both teams due to tired legs. Ismaeel and Anthony had great games getting involved in attack plays and giving their defence breathers keeping possession in high positions. The wing play on both sides was effective with good powerful crosses looking for a telling deflection.

Finchfield then got a bizarre goal giving them the lead. A striker outside the visitors’ ”D”, placed a cross in towards goal. The keeper left the slow cross as no forwards attempted to challenge, the ball rolled into the goal, umpire awarded a goal. Bizarre.

Again. the stubborn visitors refused to drop their heads and within minutes got the equaliser. Lindani’s cross field pass found Munib inside the “D”, the keeper charged out so Munib, who softly played  the ball to Sean on the back post to tap in. All level and both teams still worked hard to get a result.

 Finchfield got lots of breakaways and in one instance it was three v the keeper. Paul in goal charged out to the edge of the “D” but failed to get a tackle and was grounded. But as the player passed his shot towards goal Jahed charged back and made a diving save,clearing it off the line!. A Man of the Match effort. The visitors soon had the exact same scenario with Munib on the ball and the keeper charged to the edge of the “D”, Munib again passed to Sean with an open goal with two defenders on the line. Unfortunately. Sean felt he couldn’t blast it at the waiting players, so the placed shot was parried away. In the later stages both keepers were forced to make dramatic saves which kept the score line 2-2, with honours even.

In my opinion I honestly enjoyed this game over the previous fixture when CoBHC beat Finchfield 10-0. This was a great contest and it was brilliant to see the youngsters on both teams producing great plays on the hockey field when they had the good support.

This was another game where everyone gave full commitment and 100% work-rate. Thank you to every player who has put the “effort in” when they have played Second team.

A very proud Captain.

We will probably finish in third place, a fantastic position. It’s been a great journey and a new bar has been set for us to beat next season!