Mens 1st XI
Matches
Sat 26 Oct 2019  ·  Premier - Division 2 West
Staines Hockey Club
Mens 1st XI
3
2
Maidenhead 1
Maidenhead (H)

Maidenhead (H)

Ben Green27 Oct 2019 - 15:48
Share via
FacebookTwitter
https://www.staineshockeyclub.

Legion Bleu

MOM - Matt Wells
DOD - Larry

Staines 3-2 Maidenhead

After 3 wins out of 4 games to start the season, staines headed into the maidenhead match with the confidence of getting another 3 points. The match started quite evenly with both teams having their share of possession without creating the lots of chances. Maidenhead were keen to press our centre half who kept the ball moving as solidly as always. Staines had some circle penetrations but were denied by a combination of good goalkeeping and stern defending. Staines kept the pressure on with some nice touches from Pav to evade the defenders tackles. The light rain allowed the ball to zip across the surface and allowed the teams to transfer the ball around the pitch. Maidenhead pushed forward with some good individual stick skills to earn a couple of penalty corners. As maidenhead pushed forward, staines delivered a devastating counter attack for the opening goal. An aerial from inside our own 25 popped into the opposition half to ensure a foot race between the staines forward and maidenhead defender. A race would emply that it was an even chance but there was only one winner as the Matt raced forward to collect the ball on the baseline. Once there he faced the prospect of the retreating defender and also a covering player. At that point, maidenhead were confident of keeping out the staines player. He had different ideas and promptly dribbled past both players with ease before calmly slotting past the goalkeeper. A deserved lead to take into half time.
Staines knew a one goal cushion would not be enough to see the game out going into the second half. With this in mind, Staines started the second half well, keeping possession of the ball of creating numerous chances. Maidenhead also has their fair share of chances but Staines defence stood firm and absorbed their attacks well. Staines made the most of the early possessional play by working the ball nicely down the right hand side of the pitch leading to their second goal thanks to a composed finish from Alex. Soon after scoring their second, Staines increased their lead to 3 goals after a trademark “top bins’ reserve stick finish from Matt Wells. Staines held on to a 3 goal lead going into the last 5 mins of the game. However, Maidenhead kept applying pressure and eventually found their way through Staines defence to score making it 3-1. Maidenhead were eager to get going again to try and find another goal, which they did just shy of the 2 min mark making it 3-2. With only the last couple of minutes, Staines held strong and absorbed the waves of attack that Maidenhead created; the game ended 3-2.

Another 3 points bagged for the boys in blue going into what will be a hard fought fixture next weekend against Southgate 2s.

Match details

Match date

Sat 26 Oct 2019

Kickoff

13:30

Competition

Premier - Division 2 West

League position

2
Staines 1
8
Maidenhead 1
Team overview
Further reading

Team Sponsors

Mens 1st team sponsor - R.J. Green Carpentry