Newcastle Uni 3rds v Morpeth 1sts
Score:- 2-1, Scorers:- P.Danecki, MOM:- R.Brown
For some of the Morpeth players, the familiar trip down Coach Lane to the Newcastle University Pitches was more of a trip down memory lane where the ghost of previous battles are ever present. Starting with a more attacking formation, the players from Morpeth showed they meant business from the whistle and showed some excellent link play and forward drive. Some notable penning in and shepherding of the opposition from the dynamic combination of McLean, Fairbrother, Brown, Anderson, Danecki and Mellor meant that the students found very few gaps in which to formulate an attack. Things were looking positive for the men in green and gold and apart from a few silly mistakes, the game was swinging in the favour of the visitors.
After fifteen minutes, a break from the home team resulted in a rather scrappy attempt on goal and even though Jackson made the initial save, the resulting deflection unfortunately bobbled into the path of one of the Uni players who clubbed the ball into the back of the net. 1-0 Newcastle.
Morpeth answered right back ten minutes later when some excellent play between Shafiq, Carmichael and Brown ended up with the ball finding Ross ‘Dr Love’ Valentine at the back post who swiftly nudged the ball past the keeper and over the line only to hear that the whistle that was blown was not for the goal but for a penalty corner due to goal keeper infringement. Needless to say, there were some questions to be asked!!
The remainder of the first half continued with consistent end to end play with neither goal really seeing much action apart from a few wild attempts by the Students and some well drilled Morpeth penalty corners that were unfortunate not to be dispatched into the net. The result at half time remained 1-0 in favour of the students. Even though spirits were high in the Morpeth camp and players seemed to be enjoying the more attacking style of play, it was not easy to ignore the scoreline and a bit of hometruth from coach McPate watching from the side lines ensured that the second half would require a strong effort from all.
The second half started much in the same way as the first half with strong play from both sides. The students however soon started to show that regular play and training together pays off and they began to launch a bombardment of attacks on the Morpeth D but due to their complacency and lack of focus, all attempts bar one were dealt with by the back four of Mclean, Mulligan, Fairbrother and Mellor (who had shown earlier that he is just as at home on the football pitch as he is on the Hockey pitch…hmmmmm!!) and keeper Jackson. Following this blow, the Morpeth players turned on turbo mode and started some attacking of their own. MOM & DOD Brown showed his true value and found himself alone with the ball in the oppositions D. After weighing up all options as to where to put the ball, he decided it would be best to ‘pass’ the ball off the keepers pads back to the more experienced and confident fellow striker Danecki who powered the ball past the diving keeper and into the back of the Net making the current and final score 2-1 to the students.
Even though the Morpeth players felt that they could have taken 3 points from the game, not all was lost as they showed that by playing more attacking hockey, more scoring opportunities become available and hopefully in the second half of the season, the silly mistakes sometimes made can be converted into strong play, goals and points on the board. A big game against a powerful Marton Furness side awaits the team next week.
