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Written by Webmyster
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Monday, 30 November 2009 |
BROOKLANDS ON A HIGH
Report by our hockey correspondent, David Meek
It¹s a happy Christmas for our hockey first-team men after a dramatic and exciting finish to the first half of the season.
The boys go into the winter break on a real high after three terrific results in Cup and League. First they halted a losing run in the Premiership with a battling 2-2 draw at Hampstead and Westminster that saw them just 20 seconds short of a win.
The next day saw them blow the form book out of the water to knock mighty Reading out of the England Hockey Cup to go through to the quarter-finals with hopes high for further progress against Olton and West Warwicks in March.
But the real boost came at the weekend on a rainy day at Georges Road with a grand 2-1 victory over East Grinstead the reigning League champions that takes us out of the relegation and play-off places.
Grinstead didn¹t help themselves when they had Danny Hall sent off for violent play after half an hour, but even so we played some quality hockey at times and scored two excellent field goals.
The first came from David Seddon following a good build up that saw the former Formby man finish with the kind of shot that sees him up there with the division¹s leading scorers and the team with an interval lead.
A smart aerial from Seddon got David Flanagan racing away to finish well and increase the lead.
We had our backs to the wall after Niall Stott had pulled a goal back for the visitors 10 minutes from the end, but Lee Ible and the defence rose to the occasion to see us through for a win that suggests we can stay in the Premiership division.
Coach John Bell certainly thinks so and says: ³It was a massive step when we came into the Premier but I think we are equipped to survive. We will have to fight all the way but recent results have been very encouraging.
"We gave one of our best performances to put Reading the holders out of the Cup. They had internationals away but we had players missing as well.
"Against East Grinstead our defence negated their experience with Lee Ible outstanding in goal, and coming out on top against Rick Gay¹s penalty corners." Ible and Gay are team-mates in the Welsh international squad and fought a tremendous duel.
Says Lee: "It was a bit weird being up against each other. I know where he likes to put his corners but we are good mates and there was no sledging or anything like that. I did OK, though I don¹t think he was at his best." The season reopens with Brooklands playing at Beeston on Sunday, February 7.
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