After only being able to grab a point at Lincoln Slazengers men’s 2nd team were hoping to get back to winning ways with a home match against Scunthorpe 1st team. It was a close match but the home side managed to get a win with a 3-1 victory over the visitors. The first half started with a slaz goal from a short corner. Anwar Al-Khaili scored from a rebound from the first shot. Although it seemed slaz looked the strongest Scunthorpe reacted to the goal and were soon pilling the pressure on the slaz defence which was well organised by the centre back Eddie Taylor and the slaz goalkeeper, and man of the match, Lee Seeker who produced some great saves to keep Scunthorpe out. The match was evenly poised at half time with both teams creating chances and not taking them leaving the score line 1-0 to slaz.

At the start of the second half Scunthorpe strarted the strongest with slaz’s defence turning sloppy. Again with Lee Seeker making some great saves Scunthorpe were unable to score. Once slaz had sorted their act out they began to create more chances of their own. Slaz’s next gaol came from a great move which started from a run though midfield from Anwar Al-Khili who passed to Simon Randall who crossed it to Simon Taylor who was at the back post to slot it in to make it 2-0 to slaz. The majority of the match was fair and well contested but with the visitors starting to get frustrated saw a few players loose their temper. Two yellow cards were shown in the match soon after the second goal. The first was to a Scunthorpe player who threw this stick in frustration at being awarded a short corner against him. The second was to a Tom Shepherd, a slaz player, a couple of minutes later who was sent off for decent after he was called over by the umpire for a rash challenge. Scunthorpe scored soon after due to a quickly taken free hit and a mix up with who was marking who by Robin Whawell and Eddie Taylor in the slaz defence. The free hit was taken quickly and then the ball was crossed into the D for the unmarked Scunthorpe stricker to slot it passed the keeper.

Scunthorpe then had a great spell where they could have equalised but again Lee Seeker kept the visitors out with some great saves. Slaz managed to score for a third time with another great cross from Simon Randall who again got the ball to the back post for Matt Middleton to tap in to seal all 3 points. In all a great team performance for slazengers with the three midfield players of Anwar Al-Khaili, Matt Middleton, and Matt Banks working hard all game and linking up well. Slazengers travel to Leeds Adel Carnegie 5th on 5th February.

By Rob Whawell
From Match at Slazenger Hockey Club, Saturday 30th January 2011