Romsey Hockey Club

A determined Romsey Men 3rd XI took the push back on Saturday while the rain soaked last night’s gel through the eyes of all players on the pitch! Romsey were determined to take the win after losing out to Blandford & Sturminster earlier in the season and put behind them the game against Hamble.

Strong play hit Romsey hard with the first goal coming only minutes into the game from Blandford. A strong strike at top D left keeper Craig Mellor stranded on his line and unable to prevent. With spectators cheering for Romsey to turn the game around, Romsey placed their head in the game at hand and focused on playing strong hockey.
The first of Romsey’s goals came when Jon Marsh drove the ball into the D after some fantastic triangle play in midfield to make a dummy slip right to pick out Martin Simpson-Scott to strike the ball hard into the backboard. Blandford didn’t take this lying down and came back to pressure Romsey’s half but couldn’t find composure to allow Romsey to win the play back and drive towards their goal.

Vice-Captain Pete Cooper was able to draw the play out far left on the base line to pick out Man of The Match Mark McArdle along the base line, just within the D. What was confessed as ‘meant to be a pass’ became the goal of the season for the 3rd XI as McArdle played a reverse stick hit on the base line. Everyone watched in amazement as the ball slipped neatly passed the keeper’s right foot making the score 2-1 to Romsey.

Further strong play came from Romsey before the half time whistle with Captain Clark creating a penalty corner opportunity. Simpson-Scott injected the ball to top D for Marsh to dummy switch the ball again to Vice-Captain Cooper who struck the ball to the bottom left post for Simpson-Scott to take his second goal of the match making the score a comfortable 3-1 at half time. A quick half time team talk was given ensuring Romsey keep their head focussed in the game at hand and play their strong hockey to capitalise further.

Another goal came from ever reliable Simpson-Scott soon after the half time break with another strong strike at top D following impressive switching play in Romsey’s defence between Dave Thomson and Lucas Suleja. Suleja picked out Tom Knell to drive the ball up to the half way line picking out Danny Nicoll in centre field who made a swift pass to Jamie Botto to drive towards the D who picked out Simpson-Scott to drive the ball home.

Not long afterwards, Blandford found Romsey looking for a bigger lead with J Robinson making some fantastic solo effort dancing around 3 defenders. Robinson made a reverse sweep to Marsh while drawing Blandford’s keeper off his line to strike at goal finding a defenders foot on the line giving Romsey a penalty stroke. With Simpson-Scott off the field, Captain Clark stood up to the plate to take the stroke. The initial stroke saw Clark flick the ball directly at the keeper’s pads at slow pace. Blandford players came running up to congratulate the keeper on saving the ball only to be told that it must be taken again as the keeper stepped off his line before Clark made his play. Could Captain Clark forget that poor try and capitalise? As the whistle blew again, Clark was able to dummy the ball to the keeper’s weak side, only 6 inches off the floor, to make the score 5-1 to Romsey.

With only 5 minutes left in the game Blandford kept the pressure strong by penetrating Romsey’s D on several occasions, the final of which saw keeper Mellor diving for the ball. Mellor made a fantastic initial save, hitting the ball out with his stick. The ball fell to Blandford to strike again. After what could only be described as ‘Bundle’ for the ball, the second penalty stroke was given in the game. Mellor judged the play perfectly to dive to his right. However, was only a mere inch away from the save. But the goal made no difference. The game finished 5-2 to Romsey.

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