Mens 3s back on track

Saturday 27th January was a miserable day with the Wiltshire weather dampening everything in sight including Marlborough Bs spirits which were already low after losing their unbeaten record the previous week.  After a rousing pre match speech from Andy Shaw, Marlborough started the first half full of belief.  The teams were evenly matched and both had their opportunities.  There was some great positional play in the centre from Phil Gill and Alex Ford.  Unfortunately, some enthusiastic defending by Wayne Cranstone saw him receive his third green card of the season, sadly matching his goal tally!  Before the end of a balanced first half and following numerous successful challenges in the D, Nick Gosling fresh from his stretch in New Zealand, over stretched one too many times in defence and went off injured.
The second half got underway with great combination play between Dave Patterson, Gabe Dellar and Harry Strover.  Eventually linking up with Chris Newton, who won a couple of short corners, but unfortunately the well rehearsed short corner routine failed to pay off.  It wasn’t until late in the second half that a rocket of a shot from Alex Ford from just outside the D took a deflection from Wayne Cranstone’s stick to put top of the league Marlborough into the lead.
Great performances from James Lane and Gabe Dellar and another clean sheet from the ever dependable Tom Collins, saw Marlborough return to winning ways, ending the match 1-0.