Match Report

Match report 13/10/18
MoM: Ollie Houghton
Sunbury & Walton HC 4 – 2

M1s Walking on sunshine

A warm Saturday afternoon in Sunbury, the M1s arrived light on numbers but in good spirits. We were ready for the challenge and grateful to leave our stab vests back in Croydon as we made the trek deep into leafy Hampshire. We started the match strongly with some slick passages of play and wellconstructed attacks built from the back. Nevertheless, we were unlucky to go behind early on. We went in at half-time 2-0 down and knew something needed to change.

The 2nd half couldnʼt have started any better - a swift attack straight from the pushback, executed by Ollie Houghton and we were right back in it. Buoyed by the confidence of an early goal, we kept pushing on. After a period of sustained pressure, we were justly rewarded with a second - another great finish from man of the match, Ollie Houghton. The remainder of the half sadly did not go as well. The game was marred with questionable umpiring and a number of decisions going against us. The emphasis stressed on no chat to the umpires quickly went out of the window. Many were keen to make their feelings known to the umpires and offer constructive feedback, which didnʼt go down as well as weʼd hoped. Special mentions go to Hugh and Elliott for the part they had to play in this. Hugh managed to get his green card turned to a yellow in record time. And for Elliott, when words didnʼt do the trick, he resorted to music instead. His percussion performance using the frame of the goal was a spectacle enjoyed by all. We conceded a third against the run of play and the game eventually ended 4-2; the final goal conceded whilst we played with a kicking back as we chased a point. Overall, itʼs fair to say a score that didnʼt reflect our performance. With many positives to take away, despite the disappointing result, the M1s march onto next weekʼs fixture against Epsom.