Old Whitgiftians Mens 2nd Team 4 - 6 UCL Academicals Mens 2nd XI
Match Report
As away fixtures go, traveling to Croydon is never the most glamorous or exotic on the card, but luckily for the crowd, the hockey certainly was. The Accies rolled up to the pitch in dribs and drabs and the warm-up of playing Crossbar Challenge must really have had the opposition worried, as they practiced some drills meticulously. Nonetheless we were all in a jubilant mood with an evening of second floor based fun edging closer by the minute. To be brutally honest we were high on life and ready to unleash a massive garbage sized can of whoopass all over the alumni of the wrong Whitgift School. With a little crowd assembled of Granddad, Mummy and Daddy Pears, the game got underway and we set about garnering the 3 points that would edge us closer to the upper echelons of the league. And Garner we certainly did... Right from the off the team looked sharp (and we were playing good hockey too....waheeeey) and were more than a little unlucky to go a goal down, completely against the run of play. As chances came and went, it looked as though it was going to be one of those days, but a vintage bit of box play from Scotty saw us level, and from there, we never really looked back. A second shortly followed the first after some magical link-up play from the front three, as the Whitgiftians struggled to contain our free-flowing hockey and electric movement. We were good, and we knew it. The interval came and we went in 3-1 up and feeling pretty confident, but the second half saw the Old Whitgiftians find another gear and with it a couple of goals to restore parity at 3-3. Rather than panic and crumble as so many teams could have, the Accies dug deep and found a steely resolve to slot a couple more, before a contender for goal of the season from the Old Whitgiftians pegged us back to 5-4. With time running down, we managed one last sweeping counter attack and with Pears taking two defenders out of the game, Ravenscroft nipped in to slot home the sixth, and end any hopes the oppo had of salvaging something from the game. Had they done, it would have been akin to daylight robbery, but then again this was Croydon and Croydon and Robbery go together like Bridgend and Rope vending outlets. Luckily our experience was that of victory, and with that in mind we set off for the Union. Goals - Barnes [fg] x3, Scott [fg] x2, Ravenscroft [fg] x1. Absolute genius defender who has still to grasp the concept of marking - Nuts. A turd with a cocktail stick would have been more use.
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Pushback time: 2008-02-23 00:00:00 UTC
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Notes
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