LEAGUE HOCKEY
PLASHET HOCKEY CLUB

Plashet 1 Vs Waltham Forest 1



3 - 2

For the third consecutive week running, Plashet had an away fixture, this time against Waltham Forest 1’s who have been in Div 3SE for sometime now, and have became very familiar to the standard of hockey played in this league. However, coming into this game, confidence was running high in the Plashet camp… 

From the initial pushback, it was evident to see Waltham Forest had done their homework on Plashet, they themselves were confident in trying to nick a result against the league leaders, unfortunately for them, Plashet were not likely to roll over and allow WF to put their plan into action. WF came at Plashet very strongly in the opening minutes, linking up play and moving the ball around quite nicely and creating a couple of early chances. Plashet on the other hand came out of the blocks rather slowly on this occasion, their passing and movement was nowhere near as sharp as it has been over the last couple of weeks. Wayward passing and poor first touches was the pattern of play in the first 10 minutes of the game for Plashet, this, as a result proved to be very costly for Plashet as WF took a deserved lead, the WF striker got his shot away from the top of the Plashet D which fired into the roof of the net although the Plashet keeper, Amardeep Singh got a glove to the ball, only to help the ball on it’s way. 1-0 down after the first 10 minutes, this was unfamiliar territory for the men in orange, they knew they would have to lift their game quickly to get back into it. After the restart, a gradual lift in the Plashet game became more evident, more composure on the ball, players moving into spaces and general distribution of the ball was slowly becoming more apparent in Plashets’ play. Ultimately this created more goal scoring opportunities for Plashet as well as being awarded a flurry of short corners, however, these opportunities were squandered as either the final shot was tame or the last man would try to be too precise in trying to score. On the 25 minute mark, Plashet were awarded another short corner, up stepped Sukhvinder Singh and placed a thunderous strike into the bottom right corner, 1 – 1, Plashet had finally made the break through to equalise after a succession of chances. With much of the game, thereafter being played in the WF half, Plashet continued creating chances without the desired result. Nearing the half time whistle, WF managed to take the lead once again after some very sloppy defending from the men in orange, the loose ball found its way to the unmarked WF striker in the Plashet D, he managed to drag flick the ball into the empty net. 2 – 1 down at half time and Plashet knew they had plenty to do to turn this game around.

The half time team talk, Plashet took time to reflect on the first half, every player knew what was needed to be done to turn this game around. 

With the second half underway, the men in orange began to play the game with more energy and enthusiasm. Chances continued to be created by Plashet; however these chances were still being missed as a result of the Plashet attackers trying to be too precise with their finishing. With 10 minutes gone in the second half, one of Plashets’ newest assets opened his goal scoring accounts; Imraj Singh showed composure and immense skill, weaving through 4 of the WF defenders to get into the D, as the keeper went down; Imraj dinked the ball over the keeper to slot the ball into the empty goal. So 2 a piece and plenty to play for, for both teams, it was Plashet who had the upper hand, as the game was predominantly played in the WF half, time and time again chances were created and wasted by Plashet, while WF only really ventured into the Plashet half a few times in the second half, with no real threat on the Plashet goal. Just after the 20 minute mark, Plashet took the lead in this game for the first time after a well worked short corner was once again smashed home by Sukhvinder, this time his shot was much straighter at the keeper, however the WF shot stopper was unable to react before the ball had hit the backboard. With over 10 minutes of the game still to play, Plashet retained possession and allowed WF minimal chances to get back into the game. Further chances were squandered by Plashet, Inderjeet Singh was guilty of complete showmanship as he had done all the hard work, by rounding 4 defenders, with only the keeper to beat, he opted for a spectacular effort by trying to lob the keeper, his effort sailed over the cross bar – it would have been a definite forth goal for Plashet if only he had placed the ball into one of the corners of the goal. As the final whistle blew and Plashet had got the all important 3 points, it was obvious by all this was definitely not one of Plashet’s better performances, they will look to work on key areas of their game before heading into next weeks local derby against Ramgarhia.

Watch this space to see what happens….