Wirral 1st / 2nd's v St Anselms (Oval)

In our final duel of the season against our local rivals, both teams were down at the Oval ready to go, warming up well and up for the game!! Following on from the last two weeks performances the key thing against St Anselms is competing and taking our chances.

We started brightly and both teams looked to play hockey. The first chance fell to Wirral who saw Evans in the dee, with a little composure he could have finished from five yards out. But his touch deserted him. This seemed to be the case, but we kept plugging away. There were solid excellent performances from Taylor who looked to build and dominate midfield, the ever improving Lyness and Rid in midfield were looking to create further opportunities for the pacey Wright and poacher Evans. The opportunities were just squandered and I felt we would end up paying for our mistakes!!

As the half developed Saints created a couple of opportunities and scored two goals in quick succession! How I don't know because on the balance of play and short corners we should have at least scored! It maybe was going to be one of those days. 2-0 at half time was harsh, but we needed to alter things having a go at half court that worked and put St Anselms under pressure. We pulled a goal back through Evans but further missed opportunities and corners from Bush came to nothing and St Anselms scored a third again against the run of play! 3-1. Unreal but thats how it works when you don't take your chances.

In the 2nd game we started well and with a new side and re-apperances from Crosby and Shum we had a good shape. A disallowed goal from Evans seemed harsh from a corner but a couple of poor goals conceded in the second half was our downfall, but as the first team game we missed plenty of chances and this again against a side that is not any better than us was the reason for the defeat!

AJM