Slazenger Men’s 2nd Team won at home 3-2 against a ten man Lincoln Roses 4th team. With Slaz beating Lincoln Roses 3rd team convincingly earlier in the season this looked like it was going to be an easy match for slaz, but it was quite the opposite.
Lincoln seemed to be up for the match, Slaz looked sluggish and it showed from the start with Lincoln scoring. Slazenger keeper Giles Field saved the shot but with the sun in his eyes he didn’t see the ball fall and it trickled over the line. This prompted slaz to wake up and start taking the game to Lincoln, making scoring chances which paid off with an equalising goal on the 20 minute mark from a flowing team play. Ben Graham passed the ball out to man of the match Isaac Fisher, setting up Jake Barras on the penalty spot who slotted the ball home. Although slaz had started to play better they still struggled to score and the game sat level going into half time.
At the start of the second half Slaz were still struggling to play better hockey and Lincoln were still being resilient which lead to a strong midfield battle. Slaz managed to break the dead lock and scored their second from a short corner; Slaz scuffed their first attack but recovered the ball with Ben Graham passing the ball to Anwar Al-Khaili who slotted the ball under the keeper.
Slaz scored their third two minutes later with a great team counter attack. Ben Graham ran the ball through midfield and passed the ball out to Robin Whawell on the right wing who hit the ball square to the top of the ‘D’ for Ben Graham to pick it up and smash the ball home. With slaz finally playing good hockey they should have added to their tally but couldn’t find the back of the net. Lincoln pulled one back with a controversial goal late on.
A Lincoln player carried on playing after the ball had gone out over slaz’s back line but the umpire didn’t see it and their was a scramble in the ‘D’ and Lincoln tapped it home. The slaz keeper Giles Field had to be calmed down by players and umpires due to the Lincoln player not willing to be honest and own up to his cheating.
This development soured the game, leading to a scuffle between Simon Taylor and a Lincoln player. Both were handed yellow cards, with only minutes left in the game. Slaz pilled the pressure on as it was 10 players on 9 but with little time left to play the yellow cards made little difference.
Slaz travel to Leeds Adel Carnegie next week.
