Mens 2XI Vs PGSOB A

Match Report PGSOB A 

A cold wet Saturday afternoon rolled into Plymouth on Saturday 21st 2015 most notable was this cold snap felt at Fort Lipson. Even before pushback the weather gods where trying to put us off are stride when a hail sleet storm rolled in coating the pitch in a light layer of white. From this the hail kept hitting bare skin and causing discomfort amongst the athletes, if I could summarise the experience from the writers point of view it would not be to dissimilar to an acupuncture procedure but what was evident after the game was that the hail storm wasn’t the only painful pricks we had to deal with before and during the match. 

A welcome back to the side was Jacob Stevenson (Crackers) missing for a couple of weeks due to illness and a welcome addition to the match day squad. Reasons for absence couldn’t be distinguished to one pathogen based disease was it bacterium based or virus but nevertheless it was great to have him back. With the recent BT television deal to broadcast the international hockey for both the men and women it wouldn’t be too long in this writers view that a gantry would need to be installed at Lipson to capture some brilliant movement passing and goal scoring from this match, alas this is just a pipe dream. 

Moving onto the match. What was notable during the game was the fast ball movement and transitional play from all sectors of defence midfield and attack early chances came and went but then Plymouth won a short corner... The crowd held its breath apart from rather rude PGSOB fans quietly chanting, which wouldn’t have been out of place at a kids 5 year old party due to the immature behaviour they where displaying. Short Corner, King inject, Barnes stop, Gunn-Colling slap to the post and Campbell-Orde deflection, 1-0 poetry in motion. An attack can only be as good as its defence and praise has to be hampered on Smart, Finnerty, Jayewardene, Lillie and Churcher for their resolute defending only to be undone by a sloppy short corner which came to little too late for PGSOB to mount a comeback in the dying embers of the second half. 

The second half began with the same intensity and drive shown from Plymouth University side which has been evident in the past weeks. The whole team and in particular the midfield for their persistence and constant harassment of the PGSOB team. Leeson picked up a loose ball and passed towards the forward line only for the ball to be deflected into the line of Campbell-Orde for him to slot away his 2nd goal of the game on his reverse into the bottom right corner an excellently well taken goal and proving he is worthy of his 29 goals so far this season. Plymouth University kept the high pressure and intensity throughout the second half and again were rewarded with a short corner. A scrappy short corner in comparison to that previous in the 1st goal it was well taken with a poacher esq reverse by Stephens once again proving that not all goals are beautiful but they all count. An ode to Stephens’s goal might be down to his recent dietary changes in his life. The writer might not know what changes he has made but for sure can speculate on that fact that the combination of carbohydrates from lets says pasta/spaghetti and the lean protein gained from various minced meats could be combined with a sauce preferably tomato into a bolognaise type of dish. This slow release energy meal combined with the protein based minced meat enabled Stephens to pounce onto the hockey ball and score into the net, congrats young man. 

Final whistle blown the team can reflect on a composed and mature performance way be on their years. From this the team can now move forward and cement their position as genuine promotion challengers and challenge and beat the best teams this league has to offer. 

Final Score: Plymouth University 3-1 PGSOBA 

MOM: Joe Campbell-Orde 

DOD: The Writer.