Men's 2nd Team Vs Old Silhillians 4

CoBHC Men’s 2nds       0     v      4    Old Silhillians 4ths

On paper, this was always seemingly going to be a tough fixture. And so it proved.

CoB faced problems right from the start as Stan, Anthony, Parameth were unavailable and skipper Paul was needed to umpire. However, the team was able to call upon Rob to add his vast experience. Zach also helped out until he had to shoot off to sort out the Badgers game.

Right from the start Old Sils showed their intent. Their blend of experienced players together with some very useful younger players settled into a confident pattern of attacking play which made life difficult for the home side. However, as usual, the CoB defence held firm for long periods, not making life easy for their impressive opponents. Rob, together with Edan, Ian and Mat were doing well aided by some good tracking back by Ben, Jahed, and Zach. CoB forward play from Jordan. Sean and Kamran was proving somewhat difficult as they were largely being starved of decent service. In spite of the visitors’ dominance of possession, Jack. in goal was, at this stage, not excessively being called upon. Suffice to say that he dealt competently with what he had to do. Eventually, approaching half time, Old Sils grabbed the lead. An approach into the D led to a shot on goal that Jack partially dealt with. A rebound off his pads was met by an eager follow-up and into the goal. In spite of further advances the visitors could not add to their lead.

At half time CoB can count themselves lucky to only be the one goal down, but with the satisfaction of holding a good side to such a slender lead.

The second half saw CoB start with more positive intent but unable to build much of a direct threat. Old Sils soon settled back into their positive mode and soon added a second, curtesy of a rather scrambled effort on goal  that was unable to be cleared.  Another almost arrived very soon afterwards. But Edan made a spectacular clearance to keep out s goal-bound effort. Old Sils added a third via a well-taken effort on the left side of the D The final fourth goal came as a result of surge into the D and the ball lifted over the keeper into the net.

In spite of losing Zach to his other duties, CoB did not suffer any more damage and even showed a late spark of attacking effort but were unable to show anything from their efforts. In the end a disappointing but not unexpected result. A small crumb of comfort, this was the first game CoB had not scored in for 9 games. Credit to a good performance from the visitors who showed just why they are now top of the league. Next up is an away trip to Edgbaston.