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OPPOSITION |
Letchworth
4 Away Astro L 4-2 Owen Hughes, Andy Latham |
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'THE MAGNIFICENT 9' or 'THE INCREDIBLES' give league leaders BIG SCARE !! This Saturday Bar turned up at a very cold Letchworth armed with a former goal keeper, 2 kids and a man with a virus and turned in what must go down as one of the most gutsy team performances I have ever been involved with. From the start Letchworth quite as expected dominated possession and territory. However, although camped for long periods in Bars' half clear cut chances were few and far between as the midfield and defence were tigerish. Indeed when eventually Letchworth went ahead it was due to a perverse looping delection which was rather reminiscent of Peter Shilton and England at Italia '90. This was as a result of a short corner and all felt that this was undeserved. However, this just seemed to fortify further the 'incredibles' resolve and it is fair to say that some of the better chances were created by Bar in the first half and a fairer reflection of the game would have been 1-1 or even 1-0 to the Bar in other circumstances. Bar almost equalised within a minute of the restart when the admirable Andy Latham narrowly missed with a shot from a difficult angle. Naturally the pressure Bar were under was immense and increasing but still the chances for Letchworth were not that forthcoming. Five minutes into the second period and Owen latched onto a rebound from yet another Latham shot and sneaked Bar to 1-1 .... cue elation from Shag with a 'Ravanellli' style goal celebration. Letchworth pressed on and on, Bar defended doggedly and were generally only relieved by the odd indivdual break from Chris Wood or Paul Brady. Inevitably, the 'Incredibles' had to tire and even though they did, it took till just 15mins from the end until Letchworth took the lead again. Unfortunately, Letchworth scored again from a short corner given for reasons as yet unexplained to make it 3-1. Their goose was cooked - or so they thought - but no, the expected avalanche did not happen and although Letchworth went 4-1 ahead, Bar showed the fantastic attitude that had been apparent all game when Andy Latham scored from a short corner with a delicious strike which the keeper may have seen but was defenceless against. Bar may have even scored again with a bit a luck, and Letchworth did not look likely to score atfer this period. Overall, Letchworth probably did deserve to win this game... BUT ONLY JUST and certainly only due to superior numbers. Throughout, all of 'the Incredibles' were superb however there were certain performances worthy of special merit. Chris Wood was astonishing in a new-found role in front of the back 3, tackling with committment and releasing pressure with long mazy runs on more occasions than I can remember for which exactly the same can be said of the ever consisent Paul Brady (fantastic). Andy Latham performed up front on his own and created havoc (and most of his own chances) - he even got back to defend on most occasions - what a team player and without any fuss or noise. The junior 'incredibles' Toby and David Fennell came of age right there! and messrs Hughes, Hawkins, Drews and Shag were excellent 'spear-carriers'. All the Letchworth players agreed that in some ways this was the hardest match of their season so far. WELL DONE TO THE 'MAGNIFICENT 9' ... !!! JUST IMAGINE HOW GOOD WE COULD BE WITH THE SAME ATTITUDE AND THE FULL COMPLEMENT - PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU ARE AVAILABLE ON A CONSISENT BASIS IF YOU WISH TO CONTINUE PLAYING HOCKEY WITH YOUR MATES - OTHERWISE WHAT'S THE POINT? Story ends, Shag --------------------------------------------------------- "The Incredibles"...John Drews, Cliff Hawkins, Chris Edwards, Toby Seaman, Chris Wood (Captain), Paul Brady, Owen Hughes, David Fennell, Andy Latham. --------------------------------------------------------- |
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