Men's 2nd Team Vs KIngs Heath Pickwick 2

Kings Heath Pickwick 2s 0 V 2 CoBHC 2s

Goalscorers:      Zach Jarvis (40th minute),    Parameth Yingchankul (65th minute)

Again, in this division at the start of the play, we were playing a different third from top. Up to now we have put in good performances and got a couple of results from these games

First half started pretty evenly with both teams having equal amounts of possession. Gradually the visitors started to gain more control of the half and won three penalty corners and forced the home keeper to make a lot of saves. The home team soon resorted to long ball clearances looking for unmarked players high up the pitch. This did stretch the visitors at times with a few breaks into the ‘D’, which forced the defence to produce another solid performance. Fortunately, the visitors conceded no short corners and Jack in goal only had two clearances to make. The visitors did fail to mark players closely enough in the middle of the pitch, which resulted in more safe clearances by the home team. This gave their team respite at a time when the CoBHC attack was trying to build pressure. The two best chances of the half fell to Anthony and Zach. Anthony tried to latch onto a crossed ball across the face of goal and with him diving with an outstretched stick, missing the ball by inches. Zach’s was a drive into the ‘D’ and drifted wide and from a narrow angle played a Tomahawk shot which crashed into the side netting.

Half time 0-0 with the visitors slightly edging it with possession and chances.

Second half saw a more commitment from the visitors, players were winning more 50/50 balls. The marking of opponents was closer. More tackles were being won with turnover of possession happening more frequently. This pressure soon led to a pass to Zach from Sean in the middle of the pitch. He drove into the ‘D’ and tried passing the ball to Matt on the back post, but as the keeper intercepted the cross it deflected towards his own goal, Matt could have swept up the loose ball, but instead he watched it cross the line for Zach to claim the goal.

The home team gradually started to get into the game with good movement in the middle of the pitch. This again tested the defence of Edan, Paul, Ian and Jahed. But as the home team pressure grew a few errors started to creep in. At one point a slip, let the ball fall to a striker one on one with Jack. Jack made his first real save of the game and then immediately from the rebound another excellent save. Soon afterwards, a swift clearance broke through the visitors ranks and found an unmarked attacker charging onto the free ball, Jack again charged out to close the angles and the shot deflected off his pads wide. With the home team pressing for an equaliser, it left gaps in the middle for the visitors to get a few breakaways chances. The home team defence stood firm to these, and protected their keeper. The visitors did win a couple of short corners from these breakaways but never really got good contact on the ball.

The stress of defending a one goal lead started to show with the defenders (under heavy pressure) beginning to shout a lot at each other about their plays. Weirdly at one point it got so heated with swearing that the umpire green carded our player for bad language. Team infighting within the ranks was unfortunate and it certainly unsettled the visitors team shape for the rest of the game (20 minutes remaining). The stress levels soon cranked up even further for a solid ten minutes of constant defending. This soon spilled over with the umpires calling both Captain’s to control the game with “no questioning the umpire calls”. As Captain, I reiterated the umpire’s message, asked the team to calm it down, have a breather and then I tried to get the formation of the team set better.

The little moments’ break helped the visitors reset and then as the final ten minutes began the whole team defended deep to stop the home team’s constant surges. The home team pressure led to their first short corner the game, as soon as that was protected the home team soon won another one. Because the whole team defended the 1-0 lead, when tackles were won, they had no release and had to try to pass it through a heavily congested midfield. Still under constant pressure the visitors managed to win another tackle, this time the ball fell to Sean who turned and broke towards goal, he had support from Matt and Parameth. A three on two breakaway. Sean drove towards the defender then slipped the ball to Matt. He controlled the ball and reverse flicked his shot, keeper saved with his body, Matt got a second shot, again the keeper saved, this time the ball fell to his left, Matt got to the free ball and shot (on his open side) only Sean and Parameth were near the back post. Parameth made sure of the goal (with a great assist from Matt) and gave the team breathing space with three minutes left. The home team tried hard with the final minutes but with everyone back the visitors finished the game with all three points and the first clean sheet of the season.

This was a feisty, hard-fought game and both teams played strong but fair hockey.

The City of Birmingham Second Team are now ninth in the league leaping over Bridgnorth 5’s, who we play in a few weeks time.

Captain’s thoughts.

Well played today.

The team shape in todays game just shows how finely balanced a team is from a loss or a victory. Today the midfield powerhouse of Parameth, Zach, Kamran, Sean and Ben (Man of the Match) gave the team a short passing ethos with good interlinking play. But the whole squad have to play as a tight unit in symphony harmony. We cannot have infighting between ourselves, it gives opposition signs of weakness and looks unprofessional. I know how heated it gets at the back and ALL the players only have the team’s best interest at heart. But please let’s show compassion to each other win, lose or draw. Thank you again for another gritty performance, congratulations on the victory and first clean sheet again against the third from top.