Swindon 2 - 2 Marlborough

Marlborough maintained their position towards the top of the league table with a hard earnt draw away at Swindon thanks to a superb brace from the evergreen captain Anil Sud. Marlborough went into the game of the back of a resounding 8-0 home win against UWE but knowing that Swindon would be an altogether different proposition.

The game started at a predictably frantic pace with both sides looking to assert themselves by gaining the territorial advantage. Marlborough looked dangerous playing a longer, more direct style of hockey than normal. With Rich Holman and Mark Ramage, in particular, playing numerous passes to the Marlborough forwards deep in the Swindon half. Despite this Marlborough were unable to take the lead thanks to a lack of accuracy in their final pass and Swindon began to grow into the game. Their strong ball carrying through midfield began to create space for their forward line and it was only the excellent reflexes of Aaron Holloway which kept Marlborough level.

It was Marlborough who took the lead at their second penalty corner, with Captain Anil Sud rocketing the ball into the corner of the goal. Unfortunately, the lead didn't last long with Swindon breaking away to level the scores before halftime.

Marlborough continued to try and apply pressure to Swindon defence, looking to take risks in order to win the ball higher up the pitch. The game was becoming very stretched when Marlborough, from one such high turnover, played a nice interchange of passing before Anil Sud was able to turn the ball into the goal when the Swindon GK made a good first save from Alex Renwick's reverse effort.

Swindon really upped the intensity, pressing higher up the pitch and forcing Marlborough into making mistakes in the midfield and ended up forcing an equaliser. They were awarded a Short corner when Chris Jones was very harshly judged to have fouled a Swindon forward in the circle. Aaron Holloway was able to save the first effort but the rebound fell kindly to a Swindon forward who fired the ball high into the goal, via a deflection of Ollie Davies' facemask (Fortunately he wasn't hurt)

The game continued to be an end to end affair right until the final whistle. Swindon, in particular, felt as though they should have won the game when they had the ball in the back of the net only for it to be disallowed due to 3rd party obstruction.

Marlborough were pleased with the point but felt as though on another day they could have taken all three. It was great to be involved in a game of such high quality with two teams looking to play hockey in the right way. Marlborough move into their next fixtures looking to cement their position towards the top of the league.

Man of the Match was awarded to Aaron Holloway for a series of exceptional saves which kept Marlborough in the game

D*** of the Day was "awarded" to Mattt Osborne who showed a little bit too much enthusiasm when attempting to chase down a loose ball.