Marlborough A (4) v (0) North Wilts.

Marlborough A played their second game in 2 days, and more importantly, faced their biggest game of the season against the runaway league leaders, North Wilts. The 2’s came away with an excellent and extremely satisfying 4-0 win. The match is best summed up by an after-match quote from Captain Ed Watson, “that is without doubt the best game of hockey I have ever played in at Marlborough!”

A strongest team possible was assembled and we saw the welcome return of Charlie Ponder in defence, Mark Kinder and Will Langton in Midfield and there was a debut for Adam Staines.Following a good warm up (Dan’s back!), and a reminder from Ed of the formation and key points, we were all pumped and ready for a great game. We got off to a fantastic start and had won a short corner within the first two minutes of the game after some smart work by Mark Kinder in the right corner.

1-0 Penalty flick – Justin Metcalfe. From the first short corner a clear shot was stopped on the line by a defenders foot and Justin stepped up to take the flick. He confidently and powerfully flicked into the top left roof of the net and gave the keeper no chance! The flick was an exact replica of one Justin had done in the warm-up and as he rightly said – “you never know when you might need to take one” (If they are all that good - you can take all of them !)

We were off to the best possible start and North Wilts were clearly rattled and knew that they were in for a real battle. We had another goal disallowed for a lifted ball, as Justin crossed the ball from the left and Andy Davidson executed a high square cut at the back post and smashed the ball in at shoulder height (too high!). We continued to dominate play and there were many deflections and touches that went just wide of the North Wilts goal.

The defence today had a different look and attacking feel about with Alex Davies (RH), Charlie Ponder and Ryan Noble (CB) and Ed Watson (LH) all being cajoled by Rich Newton in goal. The fact that between them they managed to keep the leagues top goal scorers to a nil game was brilliant. The game got quite tasty at times and the tackles were flying in all over the place – with Will Langton leading the way, by breaking up everything in the midfield and the odd card being brandished by the umpires. North Wilts were clearly rattled and not expecting to be dominated. “Can you spot the Marlborough 2’s player on the pitch!!?” Which either makes us all 1st team players [Andy D – in my dreams, but we will take the best compliment I have had all year! ], or it is an indication of how well we have progressed all year and play as a team.

HALF-TIME. All the chat was about the positive work we were doing, more of the same and this game was ours for the taking.
The second half got off to the worst possible start, as our star striker fluffed his pass back, and the North Wilts striker picked up the ball sprinted through towards and just as he was in the act of shooting, Mark Kinder appeared from nowhere and nicked the ball away. This fired up North Wilts, and to their credit they dominated play and put us under huge pressure for the next 5-10 minutes. We had to expect this from the league leaders, and we absorbed the pressure well. It was well into the 2nd half before we scored again.

2-0 Toby Sampson scores an excellent strikers goal following some more pressure and strong build up play. Another surging run from Justin before he passed to Toby Sampson, who received it at the near post, spun neatly and fired it in to the far post. This was nothing less that we deserved, and the North Wilts heads dropped.

3-0 Justin Metcalfe scores again (2nd of the day, 6th of the weekend!). Will Langton, who had sat deeper for most of the game (tackling like a demon), surged forward, glided pass a couple of defenders, “gave the eyes one-way” and slid a powerful pin-point pass to Justin who glanced the ball in the back of the net.

4-0 Justin Metcalfe scored his hat-trick (7th goal of the weekend, and 18th goal of the season!). It wasn’t a goal to write too much about – so I wont ! Aside from the fact that Justin managed to squeeze the ball between the keepers legs and Dan Crossman could have nicked it and scored – but watched it trickle over the line!

5-0 Sorry it should have been 5-0. At another short corner, Mark Kinder, from a few yards, flicked the ball on target, into the chest of a defender on the line, the balled dropped and he stabbed it home. But the ref had already blown for a Penalty Flick. So Justin stepped up, grabbed the ball and magnanimously handed the ball the Mark Kinder (who said “No Way”), and then handed the ball to Will Langton, who stepped up confidently (and why wouldn’t he, he had had an excellent game!). So now for a quick trivial question: Which was quicker – the time taken to type this question or the time taken for the ball to leave Will’s stick and reach the goalie!! You guessed it. Will sent the keeper the wrong way, but as the ball trickled towards the keepers left, he had time to re-adjust, make a cuppa and make the save! No goal scored, No harm done !

4-0 was the final score and was a true reflection of our domination and clinical finishing. It was a great game to be a part of and revenge for our 1-0 loss in the first game of the season (when we also hit the post twice and had a good goal disallowed). We have largely the same group of players, but we are now playing much better as a team. Long may it continue!

Marlborough News Online MAN OF THE MATCH – it is not often that a another hat trick (by Justin) is upstaged. Will Langton had a great game with his tenacity, tackling and midfield masterclass. But MOTM is CHARLIE PONDER for his performance in defence and constantly pushing everyone forward allowing the whole team to disrupt the North Wilts game much higher up the pitch.

MOMENT OF THE MATCH – There were too many to single out one, but perhaps the high compliments paid us by the opposition bench.

Another two games next weekend!