Marlborough 6 - 1 Taunton Vale

Marlborough clinched their league title in emphatic fashion with a very comfortable 6 - 1 home victory.

Taunton are the only team so far this season to have beaten Marlborough and they went into the return game determined to make amends for their poor away performance earlier in the season.

Marlborough controlled the early exchanges with lots of possession and created several half chances before they eventually took the lead. Charlie Hawley read an attempted clearance well to intercept the ball in the Taunton half, he quickly moved the ball infield and it eventually found its way to Toby Sampson who was ready and waiting to turn the ball into goal. Marlbrough extended their lead shortly after when Alex Renwick carried the ball well to beat two players and enter the circle, he managed to draw the keeper towards him and then play the ball square to Vice Captain WIll Radnedge who calmly applied the finish.

Marlborough knew only too well that this was exactly the pattern of play which was seen in the away game earlier in the season and were determined to push home their advantage and finish the game off as a contest. Unfortunately they turned the ball over in the midfield which allowed a quick switch of play to the Taunton left wing, their forward controlled the ball well on his reverse and made his way to the baseline, he somehow managed to burrow his way through several tackles and pulled the ball back for his teammate to put into the bottom corner.

Fortunately, Marlborough reacted well to this setback and restored their 2 goal cushion when a flowing passing move down the right hand side allowed John Bromley space to advance. His entry pass found Rhys Davies who deflected the ball across goal to Will Hughes who calmly finished.

Half time arrived with Marlborough determined to control the tempo of the game and continue playing their style of hockey. They did this extremely well, transferring the ball well through all lines of the pitch and finding space in wide areas to advance the ball up the pitch.

They extended their lead to 4-1 when Captain Anil Sud found space inside the circle, he calmly dragged the ball onto his reverse and fired it underneath the keeper. Marlborough continued to dominate the game, restricting Taunton to hopefully passes to try and set up a counter attack.

The 5th goal duly arrived from a lovely interchange of passing between Toby Sampson and Charlie Hawley. Toby received the ball with his back to goal, rolled strong to beat the first man and then exchanged a quick one two with Charlie. Toby found himself one-on-one with the keeper and rounded him on his reverse before slotting the ball into the corner of the goal.

Marlborough rounded the game off when a quickly taken free hit and direct carry from Matt Way allowed him the space to fire the ball into the circle. Toby Sampson had cleverly led across goal to create space for himself on his strong side, he met the pass without breaking stride and deflected the ball back across his body and into the corner of the goal.

At the final whistle news filtered through from the watching Men's 2nd team players that Bath had failed to win today and therefore Marlborough knew that this win clinched the league title. It is all down to the hard work put in by the whole squad both every Wednesday at training and the commitment and determination to convert that into quality performances on Saturdays.

Marlborough will go into their last 3 games looking to protect their perfect home record and continue building momentum into the new challenge of next season.

Man of the match was awarded to Charlie Hawley for his dynamic work through the midfield. He pressed with great energy to win several high turnovers and was a constant driving force for Marlborough's best attacking moments.

D*** of the Day was "awarded" to Rhys Davies for his failure to understand the rules of 'when the ball is out of the field of play'