Magicians vs Stoke Green 1

The Magicians faced a strong Stoke Green side last weekend but more than matched them and for the second week in a row, ended up with less than was deserved for the performance.

The team started off slow as we had done the previous week and Stoke a Green capitalised to take a very early lead in the match. Despite the defending by Maids being well organised with Dave M, Colin, Richard & Dave D comfortably holding their own against the Stoke Green forwards, there was relentless pressure absorbed in the first 15 minutes and it was only thanks to last second tackles and superb saves from Rav in goal that the score was kept at 1-0. We also managed to avoid going 2-0 when a penalty stroke was missed by a Stoke Green.
We got back into the match as the half progressed and finally got a deserved equaliser with a great shot from Richard Brewin. The Maids attacks then started to flow and we were unlucky not to go in ahead.

In the second half, the team pressed with more intent and the passes had more purpose and the modified started to get much more of a grip of the match through great work from Ollie, Mark and Clint and we had great width from Yuvraj and Zach to support the forwards with Tim working tirelessly to stretch the Stoke Green defence. We finally took a lead when a viren finished to make it 2-1 but the lead was short lived with Stoke Green responding with a penalty corner to make it 2-2.

We pushed for a win and took the lead again with Yuvraj taking on several players on the left flank to fire the ball into the D, with Viren getting a touch on it to send it towards Chris who managed to guide it into the goal for 3-2.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t quite hold on and Stoke agreed managed an equaliser.

A great match, and lots to be positive about from the team - more performances like this will eventually get the results deserved. Next up is Reading at home.

Rav was our player of the match with a superb showing in goal ?