LEAGUE HOCKEY
PLASHET HOCKEY CLUB

Plashet 1 Vs Uni Of Essex 1

25th October 2008



5 - 2

Plashet travelled up to Colchester to play against the students this week with 6 of their regular first team players away on international duty. This lead the way for the second team youngsters to step up to the mark to see what they were made of.

A much reshuffled Plashet side meant a completely different approach to this game, however from the initial push back, Plashet set into a comfortable stride pushing the ball around and creating chances. It only took 5 minutes for Plashet to open the scoring as Verinder Singh tricked his way into the D; he laid the ball off to Sant Singh, who saw his sweetly struck shot nestle in the student net. Immediately after the restart, Plashet were on the attack again, and went 2 nil up through Sukhdev Singh's short corner strike which beat the keeper for sheer power. As the game continued thereafter, Plashet were still creating chances but became far more relaxed in possession which in turn allowed the students to take more control of the game, as Plashet were fielding a more inexperienced side than normal, the students applied more pressure and began to create chances of their own. With 10 minutes of the first half remaining, the students pulled a goal back to halve the deficit to 2 -1. As the students had found a new confidence, they continued to apply pressure to get the equaliser they so desperately required, however the men in orange managed to hold on till half time with their noses in front.

The start of the second half, the students started from where they left off in the first half. Within 5 minutes of the restart the students levelled the score as a hopeful hit into the Plashet D was deflected by Sandeep Singh into the path of the unmarked student striker to convert his first time strike past the helpless make shift Plashet keeper.

Plashet adopted a more classic counter attacking hockey against the students there after, although the students had their fair of possession and were able to dominate certain areas of the pitch, Plashet pulled all but 2 of there men behind the ball and left them in the students half. This was a tactic that paid off for Plashet as a student attack broke down, Plashet cleared the ball to find Sant Singh, he managed to bamboozle 2 student defenders and square the ball to Sukhdev Singh, with only the keeper to beat, Sukhdev dinked the ball over the keeper who had already fallen to the ground. This pattern of the game continued to the end, however, the students were unable to take advantage of their possession and increase their goals tally. As Plashet kept calm and kept the students at bay through a hard working all round team performance, they went further ahead through a sublime drag flick from Verinder, he managed to pinpoint his flick into the top right corner leaving the student keeper absolutely no chance. With 10 minutes of the game left, Sukhdev completed a well deserved hat trick with yet another gem of a short corner strike fizzing past the outstretched student keeper. With the remainder of the game played on the back foot by Plashet, the students had further chances to score but were unable to pull the scores closer due to a combination of good defending and squandered chances.

An encouraging score line at the end of this game, considering the amount of changes Plashet had to make to their squad, this result was definitely down to everyone doing their job in all areas of the field and the strikers capitalising on their chances when they were presented to them...