Marlborough 3 - 2 Robinsons

Marlborough entered their second game of the weekend knowing that the season objective had been met the previous day when their win guaranteed the league title. Marlborough's pre-match team talk focused on the idea of pride in our performance and protecting our 100% home win record for the season.

Marlborough once again started the game with lots of possession, the opposition looking to sit with lots of players behind the ball and then counter when the chances arrived. They opened the scoring following a through the inside right channel, Captain Anil Sud's pass found Ed Watson on the baseline, he played the ball across goal and was it finished by Toby Sampson. Marlborough quickly extended their lead when Matt Way won the ball in his own half, he drove to the left to create space to play a defence splitting pass to Alex Renwick on the edge of the circle. Alex rolled his man smartly and found himself one-on-one with the keeper, he dummied to his left and dragged it onto his strong side to finish form a tight angle.

Marlborough's territorial dominance led to a number of short corners from which Rich Fynn extended the lead to 3 with a pin-point strike into the sideboard. Marlborough ended the half with a 3 goal lead but back to back green cards for Ollie Davies and Chris Jones was just the tip of the iceberg...

The second half of the game was an incredibly frustrating one, with Marlborough controlling the game anytime they had their full complement of players on the pitch, unfortunately this totalled all of about 10 minutes as they found themselves under pressure from their own ill-discipline.

The cards continued with a further green card shown to Freddie Hazlitt before yellows for Will Radnedge, Ryan Noble and Toby Sampson. Fortunately Marlborough managed to retain enough of their composure to remain strong despite conceding 2 goals and a barrage of short corners. Will Radnegde in particular managed the game well by breaking up the play and carrying the ball well into space and help run the clock down.

Marlborough left the pitch with very mixed emotions, obviously picking up another three points was a good result, especially under the circumstances they found themselves in. The worrying element being that it had been Marlborough themselves who had caused it. They need to ensure they learn from today's game in order to prepare themselves for next season playing in a higher league as these sort of mistakes will get punished at that level.

Man of the Match was awarded to Alex Renwick for his continuing development and in particular his calmness in front of goal.

D*** of the Day was "awarded" to Toby Sampson for the "tackle" leading to card, fortunately footage of the incident has been released... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjJSk9tmduA