2’s achieve Promotion with 8-1 win !

The 2’s officially achieved promotion whilst also mathematically consigning the 3’s to relegation – a weird feeling all round, and no doubt we will save the real celebrations to the end of the season. For the first time this year all three men’s teams were playing at home and it was great to see many of the First team players come down early to watch the 2nd’s v 3rds and lend their vocal support ....for the 3rds !

It is fair to say that any game against your own club is often a strange affair and this game would be no different. However, WAIT, STOP, “Oh No!” - the 3’s pulled a tactical master stroke just before push back and put Alex Blair in midfield ! The 2’s were as surprised as Alex, and both had no answer to this tactical slight of hand ! However, with Alex now in midfield, this now brought about the eagerly awaited, highly contested, “Battle of the [playing] Umpires” – Alex Blair VERSUS Mark Ramage ! A more titanic exchange of .....verbal jousting, umpire educating, “foul” questioning had yet to be seen on a pitch - ever ! For the record, the battle of the maestros “verbal jousters” was, a DRAW ! The scoring system was: Mark scored more goals (1 up), Alex threw more aerials (1 ALL), so it came down to a tie breaker...Alex questioned the most decisions (Advantage Blair). But he was let done by his “influence” , as his verbal chuntering fell on deaf ears !! ALL SQUARE - Honours even !

Back to the game....this was a game that the 2’s never looked like losing. We played well for the first 15 minutes and scored 3 early goals, then lost our shape and style and tempo. For much of the game as we continued to score, but not play particularly well. The 3’s tackled better than us throughout the game and showed a lot more fighting spirit than we did at times. {Afternote – this same fighting spirit that took them to a 2-2 draw today (Sun 12 Mar).]

A win was what was needed today and a brief summary of the goals and game was:

1-0 Mark Ramage scores with a low flick into the net from the right hand side of the D.

2-0 Mark Ramage scores again at a short corner routine – left slip from Keith Radnedge off the top.

3-0 Alex Davies scores a highly memorable goal – better than anything Justin has scored all season – an amazing piece of skill and ingenuity, something that Alex has practised and practised all season and finally executed – a short jab from 3 feet !!

4-0 Justin Metcalfe scores – highly forgettable ! [genuinely no one could recall how he scored and Justin’s brain is getting a little foggy differentiating between the 30 goals he has scored this season – so let’s just leave it there!]

5-0 Justin Metcalfe scores (31 goals !) an excellent deflected goal after all the hard work was done by Ryan Noble with a powerfully accurate ball into the D.

5-1 The 3’s Score ! Alex Ford has a wonder strike from the top of the D – rowdily cheered on by the supporting crowd! This was nothing less than the 3’s deserved for the tenacity and “never say die attitude”. [Editorial Note – some “Fake News” may have crept into this article, this is highly unfortunate! (Spectators of the goal will recall). I can assure you though that this “Fake News” it is deliberate and highly intentional for one reason and one reason alone - I am duty bound to protect all members of Marlborough Hockey Club and regulars of “The Lamb” Public House from the “incessant verbalisation and eulogising” of a simple strike that trickled between the un-named defenders legs]

HALF TIME 5-1 (And it was feeling like a funny old game). We clearly were not playing well in the last 10 minutes of the first half. We had forgotten many of the basics that had taken us to the top of the table – swift simple passing, high tempo and a high press, fortunately we have not forgotten how to score goals, and there were another 3 in the 2nd half:

6-1 Mark Ramage scores again from another “left slip” short corner – the ball was fired low to the left hand post, it flicked up off a foot/stick onto the post, ricocheted off the cross over to the right post and in - GOAL – if only we could all hit 3 bars and get it in !

7-1 Justine Metcalfe scores again – his 52nd (sorry 32nd !) of the season. Sorry again – run out of words to describe this one ! But if I was to describe it, it would go something like.....the team build up was brilliant and Justin tapped it in !

8-1 Dan Crossman scores at the back post after some excellent team build up. Rob Hues surged forward from right back and hammered in one of his thunderbolts. Justin pulled off a masterful dummy to allow Dan, who was perfectly placed at the back post, to slot home. It was one of the few goals that we actually passed round Tom Collins in goal who was once again brilliant today and did much to keep the scoreline down.

Putting all emotion to one side, it was a day when the Mens 1’s became Champions, Mens 2’s achieved Promotion, Mens 3’s were officially relegated. A day when everyone was as happy as the English rugby supporters in the “Lamb”!.

MAN OF THE MATCH – Once again it was the two youngest players Alex Davies and Nat Clarke who shone out amongst everyone. But without doubt the joint MAN OF THE MATCH must go to JAMES LANE and TOM COLLINS for their inspirational tackling, defending and for just being an example to all of us on how to play hockey.

PS – Following last weeks report....it is not true that Keith Radnedge refused to pass the ball to Dan Crossman (on many occasions !)