Report:
"It's not often you stutter to a 5 - 1 win" said Andy Skipper as we
walked off the pitch. And indeed this game felt a bit like this. Great
finishing and forward play disguised quite a lot of edginess in our
normally assured midfield and defence.
The opposition arrived late and steamed up by their journey they had
much the better of the first 20 minutes, where we played very badly. We
then found the art of passing again - and soon a great goal by Toby took
the wind out of their sails. A touch-in by Andy Skipper from a Toby hit
following a Martin Telling run gave us a 2 goal cushion at half time.
Toby has really found his form and his ability to hold up the ball
and make telling passes really suits our style of play. He could easily
have scored another three goals.
Interestingly, there are at least 4 ex first team skippers in this
side, so we rarely lack things to say at half time - and this time it
was Mark Linzey with the wise words of encouragement. We played much
better in the second half with some wonderful inter-play between
Alastair, Toby and Andy. Mark Linzey also became involved in this with a
goal from perhaps the sweetest penalty-corner routine I have seen in the
Threes.
Maidstone never gave up though - and they deserved a goal. Peter Watt
has an endearing habit of taking the blame on himself for opposition
goals. They are usually not his fault at all, but as a special favour to
him and to Chris our goal-keeper, we will allow him to take some credit
for this one, in an otherwise faultless game.
So we are still second and, despite not playing our best, have
bounced back from last week's defeat. Good stuff. |