Mens 1st XI Romp to Trophy Triumph
Romsey Mens 1st XI 6 – 2 Gosport
Romsey mens 1st XI beat Gosport 6-2 to win the Hampshire Trophy at Chapel Gate on Hampshire day. The game was played at a high pace and was charactersied by Romsey’s lightning fast counter attacking style, which in the ned was too much for a tough, uncompromising Gosport side. As has become their habit in this competition, Romsey conceeded the opening goal. Gosport forced a long corner into the D and a wronf footed Dave Edwards could only deflect the ball to the Gosport forward at the left hand post who made no mistake.
Romsey were soon level. Danny miles forced the ball onto a Gosport foot to win a penalty corner, from which Jack Forest Charde followed up his initial strike which was well saved by the keeper to flick in the rebound. Almost immediately Forest Charde made it two, profiting from another penalty corner to crash his drag flick onto the backboard in the bottom left corner of the goal.
Gosport were rattled by the rapid reversal of fortune and began to lose their composure and umpires Paul Howarth and Simon Watkins were forced to show a number of green cards for carless tackles. This culminated with a crude trip on Forest Charde close the edge of the D. Umpire Watkins called over the guilty man for a word of admonition, but the perpetrator was unable to hold his tongue and was rapidly sin-binned for his dissent. To add to Gosport woes, Forest Charde converted the resulting penalty corner with a bullet flick down the middle which the keeper could only deflect, for a half time scoreline of 3-1.
Almost immedaitely Romsey extended their lead to 4-1, after a penalty corner routine went awry. Forest Charde hastily improvised to beat the onrushing defence before feeding a reverse pass to Ben Mullan at the right hand post who neatly coverted. By now Romsey were attacking with pace down both flanks, as Lewis Birch on the right and Tom McCarthy on the left created panic in the Gosport backline. A typically incisive move initiated by Tom Ponsford with a delightfully disguised pass released McCarthy to fly down the left before picking out Ben Mullan high on the right of the D who smashed a pile driver of a shot past the stranded Gosport keeper.
Romsey created a number of chances only to be foiled by the excellent Gosport keeper, as Danny Miles and Ben Mullan drew fantastic saves.
Gosport never gave up, and their perseverance found a reward at the start of the final quarter of the match. Adam Williams did well in the Romsey goal to keep out the initial strike, but the ball broke kindly for Gosport to knock in the rebound. Gosport piled on the pressure, desperate to find a way back into the match with at this stage plenty of time left. In the end, having soaked up pressure for around ten minutes, Romsey found the sucker punch to kill the game off. Captain Dave Miles won the ball in his own D and fed Forest Charde, who launched a howitzer aerial which was beautifully controlled by McCarthy under pressure from two defenders. MacCarthy drew the last defender and keeper before squaring the ball to Lewis Birch who showed great composure to finish clinically.
Dave Miles accepted the Trophy from Mike Ward and was promptly soaked by his jubilant players who have capped a memorable season with Romsey’s first knockout cup success.
To see photos of this game click on the link below :
http://gallery.me.com/jameseast
