Hockey: Marlborough’s men come back with a stinging victory over Minehead

Marlborough 6 Minehead 0

Minehead

After a highly disappointing result the previous week, Marlborough knew that they had to put in a rallying performance against the visiting team from Minehead.

Learning from their slow start the previous week, Marlborough’s coaching team astutely adjusted the team’s warm up in a bid to start the game at maximum speed……it worked.

Aggressive and dominating from the start, Marlborough pressed forward and were soon forcing their opponents into numerous mistakes. Marlborough launched wave after wave of attacks but the visitors held firm – much to their credit.

In a surprising passage of play Minehead almost opened the scoring against the run of play only for Marlborough goalkeeper Brian Marnane to pull off not one but two extraordinary saves.

With that warning shot fired across their bows, Marlborough reapplied themselves once again and were rewarded. Veteran forward (and proud new father) Steve Way made an incisive run and canny deflection past the Minehead keeper. Marlborough continued to dominate in possession and territory and soon doubled their advantage after Dan Crossman calmly slotted home from an acute angle.

The second half began with Minehead adjusting their tactics in a desperate effort to stop Marlborough from menacing further. It appeared to work for a while as Marlborough took their time to change tactics and figure out what Minehead were doing differently.

However as Marlborough started to dominate again it seemed only a matter of time before they would score again which they did through a top of the D strike from Anil Sud. Shortly afterwards Sud scored again following a well worked short corner routine and the hat trick was completed after striker Will Hughes’ unselfish lay off allowed Sud an easy finish.

With the visitors increasing frustration their were some highly questionable tackles and actions being taken, most notably when Marlborough skipper Richard Holman was felled long after the ball had gone out of play by one of the Minehead strikers. The subsequent yellow card was inevitable and another visiting player also left for the sin bin leaving the visitors with 9 players for some time.

In keeping with the tone taken by Minehead, Marlborough striker Will Hughes was mercilessly cut down in the D and was lucky to avoid serious injury. The resulting short corner was dispatched by Sud for his fourth and Marlborough’s sixth goal. As a spectator was heard to remark: “That’s better, much better – a much deserved victory.”

The Marlborough News Online Man of the Match was Anil Sud.