Wolves Vs St Francis Leprechauns

Early morning start, as we had to get to Burgess Hill for 10:30 pushback.  The team had a few new players and we left Worthing with a brand new goalkeeper!  I was reliable informed by Travis that he had never played in goal before and only started playing hockey since September.  It took him a good 20 mins to get his kit on!  Thankfully Jack’s dad offered to warm the team up and get them focussed.  The Leprechauns manager was supportive but this took not away that their adult was fiercely competitive.  During the first 10 minutes Wolves were finding their feet, or should I say sticks, and some good passes were strung together.  Johnnie and Jack worked hard in the mid and defence.  Travis by now getting used to his goalie kit started to move a bit easier and managed to save a few shots at goal.  Some great tackles and passes put the Leprechauns under pressure especially when Josh Barron tackled Leprechauns’ No 10 whose face was a picture at having lost the ball.  This gave Wolves confidence and they pushed up.  Unfortunately every attack was intercepted by Leprechauns’ adult player. Half time score 6 - 1

The half time whistle could not come soon enough.  Instructions and encouragement was given during the half time chat and with renewed energy Wolves tackled the 2^nd half.  The lads closed the opposition down and produced some really good tackles to the surprise of some of the Leprechauns’ players.  By now their adult player had left the pitch and this made the game more even.  Wolves realised for the first time that using the width is a really good thing and tried hard to avoid going through the middle.  Travis now feeling confident and enjoying the game came out of the goal month he had been hugging and produced some amazing saves.  Some of the saves were balls he had kicked out but came back and he subsequently saved again.  Leprechauns were again on the attack but this time through the middle and got intercepted by Johnnie who played the ball wide to the left, Callum brought the ball up and passed skilfully to Oli Fenton in turn passed to Ryan Churcher who put it in the back of the net.  Wolves had some short corners and got close to scoring.  Leprechauns had a total of 6 short corners from which we conceded 2 goals.

Half Time Score 3 – 1.  Wolves are getting better and now that they know what that square thing with nets (we call goals) at either end of the pitch is for, who knows they might even win a game in the not too distant future!  Well done lads for keeping going and as the saying goes:  If the going gets tough, the tough keep going!

Player Of The Match:  Callum Rudrum.     

Team:   Dominic Goodwin, Oliver Fenton, Callum Rudrum, Ross Fletcher, Ben Gosden, Daniel Hulme, Ryan Churcher (1 Goal), Travis Gibbs (GK), Joshua Barron, Josh Teear. Adult Players: John Massie, Jack Guy