Mr Metcalf (director of hockey) selected the squad of 15 players for the evening's match; could the lads apply the finishing touches to months of hard work? The Wirral team arrived early and were well into their warm up before the St Anselms squad arrived. St Anselms brought their full strength team, a manager and a coach to stamp their authority over WGS.
St Anselms won the toss and opted for push back, Wirral chose ends, meaning they were attacking the home end in the second half. The Wirral plan was simple; keep the ball, make simple passes and support each other. Despite the initial focus it was St Anselms who started the stronger. They kept possession well and harried the Wirral team; forcing mistakes from the back four. Wirral couldn't make headway, the midfield was being overrun and despite good movement from Hodgson and Quereshi up top the St Anselms defence was rarely troubled. Captain Max Dutton was finding it difficult to settle in midfield, Usman Hayat was ineffective on the right side of midfield as most of the play was on Nathan Walkers reverse stick. Tom Cheung was doing his best to win the ball back from his defensive midfield role but pressure was mounting on us. A switch in midfield saw a quicker and stronger Max go to the right side and a more nimble Usman into the centre. Suddenly Wirral found more time and space, spreading the play out wide and utalising the right hand side - we were now on the offensive. More activity in their final third prompted 'Raffa' Thomason in replacing Saad's tired legs with the fresh ones of Jordan Gray. The super sub didn't disappoint, literally seconds after entering the fray Gray found the ball on the end of his stick in the dee - smash - bottom corner - 1-0 - get in my son. Minutes later the whistle blew for half time.
We gathered in the top goal, the team talk made easier because of Jordan's fluent strike. Our focus for the second half was defend tight through the middle and then play wide expansive hockey when attacking. Wirral dominated the start of the second half with Hayat, Broom and Cheung distributing the ball with confidence to Walker and Dutton. Partington and Evans looked to get forward in support of the midfield from full back. All was going to plan until we lost the ball and Anselm's scored a dubious goal against the run of play, shuffling the ball in the goal from 2 yards out. However, the fighting Wirral spirit shone through and we continued to press looking to regain the lead. The match became more open as both teams went in search of the all important third goal. Sam O'Connell was called into action making a stunning save low to his left. As the game wore on we looked the fitter and sharper side, but more importantly, we had the hunger. Good work down the right hand side from Chris Partington and Captain Max teed up Jordan Gray for a half chance, he converted with ease - great technique! And parity was restored 2-1 to Wirral. 15 minutes to go with Anselm's tiring, the Wirral squad flexed its muscle throwing on Andy Ellis, Saad Qureshi, Mike Spink and debutant Tom Wise. They say you can tell how good a side is by the strength of it's bench - need I say more. The team took on a new lease of life, fresh legs continued to press home the Wirral advantage and we were now playing our entire hockey in the final third. Anselm's were a beaten team and Wirral never looked like relinquishing the lead - despite having to play extra minutes due to some dubious time keeping from the Anselm's coach. At the final whistle it was 'Raffa' Thomason who was congratulating his team on the winning performance. It was difficult to pick a man of the match with Sam's superb saves, James Broom's resilience at the back, Nathan Walker's consistency in midfield and Jordan Gray's finesse in the final third, but I am giving the award to Usman Hayat for his domination in the centre of midfield. Well done boys, a thoroughly deserved win.
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