Winchester Hockey Club Oracle Edition 49
U18 Girls
EH Plate vs Devizes - 1-0
Scorer: Alice
Down to the fourth round of the plate competition and another trip to Wiltshire to play.
The first half saw good pressure from Winchester to keep the ball in the opposition’s half. The team had plenty of long corners but only one short corner which wasn’t converted to a goal. Devizes hit the post just before half time.
The second half saw some excellent passing and good runs of play. The third short corner was saved but Alice scored from the rebound with ten minutes left to go. Devizes upped the pace and, having given away no short corners in the match, Winchester then had a string of them to defend. Chloe made excellent saves and the defence worked well to clear the ball.
A very tense finish to the game with Winchester having to defend two short corners after the final whistle. Well matched teams, a hard-fought win and a great team effort. Well done ladies, you’re now into the quarter-finals of the EH Plate!
U14 Boys
29th Jan vs Haslemere B - 2-0
A boys U14 squad of very mixed experience travelled to a new (and lovely) venue near Liphook to play Haslemere. Initially the squad had 13 players but with one ill overnight and another ill pitch-side just before we started, the team was suddenly down to a bare 11 to play! Heavy positional switching around throughout the first half eventually got the team into a good working unit. In that half GK Hugo had a few important saves to make as did the home GK, to leave the match at an even 0-0 at the break.
A quick chat on positional play, with the help of the practice balls in playing formation at half-time, was quickly taken on board and the team began to play an increasingly good passing game as the match progressed, with the home keeper much the busier. Benno, Ben, Patrick, Ollie M and Ollie G with hardly any club 11-a-side match experience behind them grew in confidence as the game progressed, with Patrick scoring from an impressive multi-pass move with about 15 minutes to go. Five minutes later Tom ran through a crowded 23 area to unleash a very strong shot from the top of D to score the second and decisive goal. The remaining more experienced players all played a great passing game with Freddy and Lawrence very often winning the ball back from the eager home forwards in the Winchester defence to then create a good platform for the many Winchester attacks. A really nice game to be part of with so many players enjoying their first full match experience. Well done team!