City of Bath 4 - 4 Marlborough

Marlborough entered into the first game of their double header weekend knowing it would be a tricky away game. Bath had given them trouble during the home game with the direct style of having an extremely talented player (No7) and seemingly looking to simply get him the ball and get out of the way

The way in which the game started set the tone with No7 attempting to go solo from the push back, to his credit he beat 3 players before being crowded out.

Marlborough settled into the game well and began to win the territorial advantage and apply pressure to the Bath circle. The deadlock was broken when a high turnover from John Berry led to the ball being worked across goal for Rich Fynn to calmly slot the ball into the corner. Marlborough extended their lead shortly afterwards with Rhys Davies picking the ball up outside the circle and rolling strong, as he crossed into the circle he unleashed a strike into the top corner of the goal, the biggest surprise was that it wasn't on his backhand, who knew he had it in him...

Marlborough kept control of the game until shortly before halftime when No7 once again carried the ball through numerous Marlborough tackles before winning a short corner. From the resulting played No7 flicked the ball into the net for a goal very much against the run of the play.

Despite a half time talk asking for calm heads and to keep playing our way, Marlborough seemed rattled as the second half began and they in fact found themselves behind after a very poor 10 minute spell. Bath levelled the scores from another Short Corner when No7 managed to evade the first runner and fired the ball into the corner of the goal. Things when form bad to worse when Marlborough turned the ball over in the Bath half. The ball was once again immediately played to No7 who carried the ball forward drawing in and beating numerous Marlborough defenders. This created space for 2 of the Bath forwards who had the ball played into them in the circle and they gave an isolated Brian Marnane in goal no chance as they worked the ball around him to put into the empty goal.

Once again at this point Marlborough showed their character and began to dig in and reassert themselves as an attacking force, despite being reduced to 10 men on two separate occasions. First, Rich Fynn was shown a Green for a very "middle class" F*** O** at a Bath midfielder who certainly held nothing back in every tackle he put in during the game and had rather cynically fouled Rich as he carried the ball towards the circle edge. Marlborough were again in a numerical disadvantage when youngster Ollie Davies was shown a yellow card, to be fair to Ollie this was more "team card" and could have easily been awarded to anyone in green for the repeated stick tackles and obstruction as No7 continued his one man band act.

Marlborough bought the scores level from a short corner which Alex Renwick won with some of the best elimination moves we have seen, I think the Bath defender is still looking for the ball as I type... From the resulting corner Rich Fynn buried the ball into the bottom corner with a thunderous strike.

The game continued in an end to end fashion and the lack of structure seemed to suit the Hero ball of Bath as they once again took the lead when Marlborough's defenders were sucked into attempting to stop No7, he was able to find a Bath forward in space in the circle who finished the move with a very well taken deflection into the corner of the goal.

Marlborough knew that they needed to change the structure of the game and impose their own brand of passing hockey and did so to equalise. Rich Holman made an excellent interception on the edge of his circle, he found Matt Way on the half way line who rolled strong giving Marlborough a 3v2 situation with half of the pitch to play in. They executed well when the ball was released to Alex Renwick on the right wing, despite being able to carry the ball into the circle, Alex got his head up and played the ball into Rich Fynn who had put in a lung busting sprint to get onto the P spot. Rich's first effort was saved by the keeper but he controlled the rebound well and calmly flicked the ball into the top corner of the goal for another equaliser.

Marlborough were kept level when Brain Marnane moved smartly off his line to charge down a Bath effort using his helmet. It seemed like it could have been one of those days when Bath were awarded a Penalty Corner as the full time whistle sounded. Despite having to defend with only 3 outfield players, due to an early break, Marlborough held firm thanks once again to Brian who swotted away the first effort form no& and Chris Jones was then able to get his stick to the ball and force it out of the danger area to end the game.

Once again it was a day of very mixed emotions for Marlborough who were pleased to come away from the game with a point but disappointed that a poor 10 minute spell and failure to deal with style of hockey played by Bath costing them the chance for all 3.

Marlborough go into their rearranged Sunday fixture against a dangerous Sidmouth team, who very surprisingly are currently sitting bottom of the table 6 points adrift of those around them.

Man of the Match was awarded to Rich Fynn for his composure in front of goal and intelligent movement up front

D*** of the Day was awarded to Ollie Davies for earning his first yellow card in only his 3rd match for the 1st Team and then deciding to leave his stick at the pitch as we went for teas after the game.

A quick mention must also go out to "Veteran" defender and Club stalwart John Bromley who celebrated his 40th Birthday today, his ridiculous levels of fitness at that age putting all of us to shame once again