Slazenger’s Development team finished off the season in style with an impressive performance against local rivals Barnsley.
Playing flowing hockey from the start, they quickly went on the offensive and created several goalscoring opportunities, through good link up play in midfield, with captain of the day Luke Gueli, orchestrating several penetrating attacks. Barnsley had their keeper to thank, for ensuring the game remained scoreless in the early minutes.
However, all this pressure did eventually pay off when Peter Gunning seized on a deflected shot within the goal mouth and gratefully put the ball in the net.
Once in front Slazenger’s never looked back and continued to score at regular intervals during the game. Next on the score sheet was Isaac Fisher who again converted after an initial save from the barnsley keeper. Left winger Alex Calderley capped a fine performance on the wing with the third goal just before half-time.
After the interval, Slazenger’s were momentarily caught off guard by a breakaway goal, defender Rowan Tejura deflecting a well hit shot on goal, away from the reach of Slazenger keeper Ralph Toon.
Other than this one aberration the Slaz defence, also consisting of Danny Croxall and Dave Smyth, coped effectively with every other Barnsley attack.
Slazenger’s quickly got back on track when Paul Corney swept the ball into an open goal from the top of the goal mouth following great forward play from man of the match Robert Cann. Slaz continued to press for further goals applying lots of pressure down the right flank with Ian Hedges working tirelessly, and despite winning several penalty corners it needed another simple tap in at the far post from Peter Gunning again to make the final score 5-1 to the visitors.
Te result means Slazenger finishes 3rd in the development league in their debut season.
