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OPPOSITION RESULT |
Stevenage 4 W 2-0 |
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Paul Brady... A match of the day favourite set of games on Saturday saw PBHC, currently first in the league, playing third placed Stevenage, whilst elsewhere second placed Welwyn GC IV (or III, depending on who's doing the counting) were playing Blueharts, currently lying fourth. I, for one, was disappointed to see Gary Lineker at 10:30 on Saturday night introducing Chelsea v Everton when such important games were happening in East of England Hockey South West Section Division 7. This was bound
to be another tough game for PBHC, with Stevenage's league position showing
their consistency and the memories of our first game against them also
still fresh and not very pleasant. The game was very lively from the start
with the teams testing each other out in the first few minutes. On around
8 minutes, a long Potters Bar 16-yard hit out by Adam Reader had cleared
the attacking opposition players and the whole of the midfield and was
making its way harmlessly towards the The game remained pacey for the rest of the first half with much of the play concentrated in the central third of the pitch but with both teams managing forays into the opponent's D. Potters Bar had the better of the chances, with crosses from Chris Wood and Liam Frame zipping across the D on numerous occasions. Unfortunately, the Bar front line of Latham and 'Shag' Edwards were not able to connect with them. Stevenage had two chances when they were bearing down onto the PB goal with a numerical advantage. One drew a good save from Alan Field; the other was snuffed out by stout defending by Adam Reader and Cliff Hawkins. Both teams had a couple of short corners, but a combination of fast running out by both sets of defenders and the Owen's School pitch secret weapon raised D-line (which causes a bobble at the crucial moment with 100% reliability) meant that there were no shots on goal to trouble either keeper. And so, the first half ended 1-0. After the break,
Stevenage looked the livelier side with their skills and youth making
the second half as lively as the first. 5 minutes into the second half,
some good interplay between the Stevenage After around 15 minutes of the second half, PB upped the work rate and began to control the midfield in their more customary fashion - good work from Wood, Frame, Brady, Hughes, Seaman and Becker steadied the game in that department. The Bar pressure began to tell and at a resulting short corner, Latham overcame the bobble and got a shot on target; only for it to be well parried by the goal keeper; the following flick on from Brady had insufficient pace to beat the defenders on the line. With five minutes to go, Wood, picked up the ball in the Bar half and single handedly took on 5 Stevenage midfielders. After dribbling for around half a minute and keeping possession he reached the half way line and sent a pass into the Stevenage half; that first pass beat half of the defence and Brady then took the ball on the edge of the D to beat the rest of the defence with a square pass to Latham in the pen-spot area. Latham took the ball on the fly and his first time shot found the back of the net - 2-0 to the Bar. And so it stayed.
A well fought performance by PB in a game that remained close for 65 minutes.
The defence can be pleased with the fourth successive clean sheet, though
Alan Field was also pleased to have got his match fee paid per touch of
the ball back down below £20 for the first time in 2 months.
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