RPHC M5s vs Trinity 3s Away

A trip to Warlingham School this week. This ground usually has its own micro-climate, that of a Polar Research Station but it was positively scorchio this week. The temperatures were high in the game before ours too, not often we see the flash of red appearing from the umpire’s pocket but an evidently ill-tempered match crescendoed with a matador like flourish.

The upshot was the late start of our game – not that we minded, logistics were a bit of challenge this week!

An injured Flynn meant we were going with 12 and in truth we started with a bare 11 as Matt B was gunning it across from managing a School game (a big thank you to Brendan for Erik Express taxi services too!)… this amplified the sense that the 14 strong Trinity had benefitted from good availability this week for their home game… and the withdrawal of their 2s earlier in the season....

Trinity opened their account at around the 15 minute mark with a well worked attack leading up to a short corner. Unfortunately the shorter corner was well worked too – a slip and a bang into the bottom corner.

We were enjoying sustained pressure at the other end too. Richard was firing aerials into space, behind the defensive line – as Howard himself put it – if only we’d had a taller front line… hard to imagine, given Howard himself was accompanied by Ben!

Mike J rifled a few good strikes across the P-Spot and toward the back right hand post but we weren’t quite able to time runs and convert.

An equaliser came in the form of a short corner. Having witnessed a few mishaps last week, when the injection came out between stopper and striker, the latter, Mike J called “MINE!”. Stopping on the strong side and rolling it into the D, there followed a solid connection from his strike. The Trinity runner was out fast, flat sticked in front… and made a lovely deflection, looping skyward over the keeper’s head, the ball dipping under the crossbar. 1-1 with about 10 minutes to run until half time.

Once the skipper caught his breath (this took some considerable time), the team talk can be distilled down to; more of the same please – bit more pressure on their set pieces and lets try to keep the ball.

Not so much Twelve Angry Men retook to the pitch but Twelve Rather Shattered ones. Erik’s work rate was astonishing, particularly given it was his second game of the day (but we expect that sort of thing of anyone under 40 in the 5s ?) but their was a looming sense that Trinity’s additional legs were about to cause us some mischief…. And so it proved to be.

Only a few minutes into the half a well worked attack down the left cut out the defensive efforts of most of the Priory men and a quick one-two across the D left Nick with no chance to make a save, 2-1.

That said, the backline team continued to absorb a huge amount of pressure - Paul’s judgement and tackling as superb as ever, Luke playing sublime simple hockey and Clarkey and Matt B indulging in a near constant game of get ball, give ball. The screen pairing of Richard and Jules continued to disrupt the Trinity attacking midfield too but it was getting harder and harder to contain. Wide midfield legs in the form of Erik (actual fast fit one) and Mike J (rather less so) were starting to turn to jelly and the game opened up even more.

Trinity short corners came again and again and eventually a goal mouth scramble got tangled in around both defensive feet and Nick’s pads before dribbling over the line, 3-1. It would have been more were it not for more goalkeeping heroics from Mr Gane.

We weren’t without opportunity in the second half though. Erik was making much mischief down the right, making driving runs towards his left back opponent and slipping the ball forwards to Ben and Howard or inside to Rich and Jules.

Ben worked and worked and worked, kept pressure on the Trinity 16s and was constantly open to play 1-2s back to his midfield colleagues. Howard too – rolling back the years to his centre forward days was pressurising the Trinity back line too.

A relatively rare second half short corner was the reward and the legendary sniping power of Jules was selected. Disappointingly fast reactions from Trinity kept him under pressure and he got a cracking strike away – but did so blind, the ball sliding just wide of the left post.

An up front cameo in the last 10 from Mike J kept the opportunities coming with some superb long balls from Rich and Luke along with an astonishingly long run of one-twos between Jules and Mike… alas the traditionally defensive pairing suffered severe nosebleeds in the rarefied atmosphere of the P-Spot and couldn’t pick Ben out.

We just could quite find the killer ball or the killer strike. On territory and possession, Trinity were ahead but not by much.

The traditional once a game gift to the centre forward came with only a few minutes left to run. Excellent recovery from Luke at Left Back supported by Clarkey but they couldn’t prevent the ball being pinged around the D – two more superb saves from Nick with great reflexes to go to ground but Trinity recycled again from the 23 and the ball was smashed in.

A shout of “let it go!” was a tad mistimed as there was a lurking Trinity forward who executed an excellent upright deflection into the bottom right. 4-1, more or less full-time.

Our biggest defeat of the season which feels more than a bit unfair in the face of a gutsy and at times great performance. The kind of performance that would have beaten numerous sides in our league… and I suspect one or two in the league above. Not our day for the rub of the umpiring green either, though I’ll resist the temptation to document those thoughts!

Next week we have our showdown with top of the table (by some considerable margin), Cranleigh… let’s see if they can get the most out of the lightning surface of Bede’s…

Man of the Match this week saw a wide range of solid nominations. Paul, Ben, Jules, Mike and Nick all with solid nominations for what can perhaps be summarised as “Bloody great effort” but it was our mystery left back who under constant abuse from the Trinity sidelines for being a suspected ringer (how rude!) – Luke who takes the honours this week. Great defensive work combined with driving runs and splendid distribution – thank you!

Champagne moment was entirely less competitive, special mention to Mike J for a couple of sliding tackles (and the good fortune of a goal) but the superb double save antics of Nick (among many others!) earn him the fizz this week – another great performance.