Lost 3-1
Scorers: Figgy
MoM: Figgy
DoD: Sladey
With thanks to team sponsor M2 http://www.fluidity.uk.com
It was a chilly afternoon under the lights as we prepared to face Old Georgian 2’s.
The game started fast with both teams pressing hard as they began to get a feel for eachother. 6 or 7 minutes in and a chance or 2 to each side we conceded an unlucky short corner. Their drag flicker stepped up and with a bit of a mis trap from the stopper managed to catch our keeper Harrison keeper wrong footed, the ball unfortunately making its way in through his legs.
From the restart we worked hard on and off the ball connecting with eachother and creating good spaces. Within around 5 minutes we were rewarded with a short corner of our own after some fine work down the right hand side.
Up steps the big man, the injection is crisp, the trap is good ball and Figgy rifles it towards the top of the right backboard. Their postman tried his best but it was just too powerful for him and he could only to nick it towards the roof of the net. High fives all around and back in the game!
Our press had worked well up to this point, however, Old Georgians began changing things up rotating their centres in and out of the pockets to create overloads which began creating challenges for us. After another 10 minutes of good play from both teams one of OG’s centre mids found himself again in a dangerous position unmarked, this time an overload on our left hand side near our 23. The 1 Canterbury player facing this 2 v 1 opted to protect the shoulder of the D from the direct shot and force the player wide. Unfortunately we didn’t recognise the danger and move players over leaving the opposition man on the baselinemove free to pick out his team mate who swept home with ease in front of the keeper.
We started to recognise and mark tighter stifling their opportunities from easy overloads now and fighting back with some good patterns of play of our own.
With only a few minutes to go before half time the ball popped out to one of the OG players after some good defensive work from Canterbury, however, with a few steps he was able to enter the left shoulder of the D and hit a reverse stick shot so sweetly into the top corner it wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Hockey India League highlights.
In games gone by we might have let our heads drop at this point but as is the title of Hard-Fi’s first top 10 single we’re, Hard to Beat.
We worked tirelessly in the second half giving just as good as we got at every turn. The Canterbury faithful were unrelenting in keeping our spirits and energy levels high but also letting the OG’s players know when they made a mistake.
The second half was incredibly even and although we had some good chances, the 12th man affect from the crowd wasn’t enough for us to get the goals we needed