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NE14HOCKEY
East League
Prem
A
Dereham
v Ipswich
Result:
Won 4-3
Scorers: K
Dixon, M Stackpoole
After a winning
start to the season, against Bishops Stortford, Ipswich had a long away trip
to take on. With Ivan Smith succumbing to injury and following Ed Driver
on to the treatment table and Andy Cook unavailable due to work commitments
the squad is being stretched to its limits, with only the bare eleven making
the trip.
The game started off with both teams
struggling to retain possession on a very bouncy pitch that can,
at best, be described as woeful. When Ipswich were
able to knock the ball about they were on top in the game and this
eventually led to a short corner in the 12th minute. Keir Dixon
unleashed from the short corner and the goalkeeper made a save which he knew
very little about, it was clear he was going to struggle.
Max Underwood was causing chaos in the
Dereham defence with his Aerial passes from left back and a couple of
minutes after the first short corner another came from a lofted through ball
to Rich Stainthorpe, who was featuring against his old club. Stainthorpe
picked up the ball and drove into the left of the D finding a Defenders foot
after beating 2 players. This time Dixon was more accurate and keeper
didn’t move. He was definitely struggling. 1-0.
This seemed to buoy the Ipswich players
and 5 minutes later a crashed through ball from defence went past the whole
Dereham defence and Dixon was onto it. The defence were left trailing as he
took it from half way to the D unchallenged and then stroked the ball into
the goal. 2-0.
At the stage it looked as though one
more goal from Ipswich would be enough to kill off Dereham but some poor
marking allowed the Dereham defence to play the ball out to their right
midfielder and he took the ball past 3 of 4 defenders before striking a
reverse stick shot into the roof of the net from 5 yards, leaving Glading in
goal with no chance.
Dixon completed his hat trick just
before half time with another short corner. Dereham were struggling to cope
with a very slick Ipswich routine.
After half time Dereham came out looking
to try and get a foothold back in the game. This happened 5 mins after the
restart when their right winger drove into the D and was unceremoniously
hacked at by the Ipswich defence. The umpire immediately blew his whistle
and gave a penalty stroke. Glading picked the right direction but the flick
was accurate and beat him for pace.
The game then became a little more
heated and Dereham had a player sent to the sin bin for a foul on centre
back Shyam Patel. This should have given Ipswich the upper hand but the 2
teams seemed to cancel each other out. Mark Stackpoole used his intuition
for this part of the game and reserved his energy by standing in the
opposition half exchanging pleasantries with the defence. This tactic paid
off when a ball broke to him and he mis-controlled the ball past one
defender, played a one-two with the next defender and slipped the ball in
the keepers near post. This should have been enough for Ipswich to relax a
little more at 4-2.
Dereham rallied and managed to get
another one back with another shot rifling into the roof of the net. The
last 10 mintues were filled with frantic hockey and some bad tempered
exchanges. This came to a head when captain Geoff Reed attempted a tackle
that went badly wrong and the opposition player reacted by hitting the ball
at Reed from point blank range. It took a slight deflection off his knee cap
and he was down. The umpires made sure that Reed was ok,
and then sent him to the sin-bin. But, as the Dereham player found out:
there is only one punishment for violent conduct. The rest of his team
protested his innocence but the as the umpires delivered the red card the
player walked off knowing that it was a fair decision.
Ipswich managed to see out the rest of
the game with Max Underwoodwinning his second man of the match award for his
solid defensive efforts. He was ably assisted by the rest of the defence and
Mark Wrinch upped his game to offer some protection for the last part of the
match. At the final whistle the Dereham goalkeeper decided to complete his
outstanding performance by receiving the second red card for telling the
umpires what he thought of them.
A pleasing 3 points
for Ipswich who now head the table as the only team with 2 wins from 2
games.
England
Hockey
Cup
round 2
Holcombe
v Ipswich
Result:
Lost 8-1
Scorers: J
Godfrey
Ipswich again only
had 11 players available to make the away trip to Kent. Max Underwood and
Matt Richardson stepped up from the 2nd team after impressing in
the last round win against Wapping.
Unfortunately
Ipswich were soon to play with 10 for the rest of the game as a ball driven
into the Holcombe D flew up off a stick and hit Mark Stackpoole in the face.
He was taken off to hospital to have stitches put into a wound on his chin.
With Holcombe having a full squad of experienced players, including a couple
of former internationals, and home advantage the job had just become a lot
harder for Ipswich!
At half time Holcombe
had only managed to put 3 goals past Ipswich. It had been a half in which
Ipswich had broken down the opposition attacks well and when Holcombe had
got into the Ipswich D Ben Glading had made a number of good saves. The
extra man was counting against Ipswich though and, despite Richard Stainthorpe's
tireless running up front, they had a lot of time to pick their passes from
the back. Geoff Reed and Mark Wrinch were showing signs that they may be
finding some form with impressive displays in the middle of the pitch and
the defence was working well as a unit.
The second half
brought more of the same but there were 2 highlights from an Ipswich
perspective both coming from solo runs by Josh Godfrey. In the first
instance he picked up the ball on the right in the Ipswich 25, ran the
length of the pitch and along the baseline to the goal before anyone could
take the ball from him. The second ended with the only Ipswich goal of the
game as he picked up the ball on the half way line and sprinted at the
Holcombe defence, he beat every defender in his way and calmly put the ball
under the keeper to finish off the impressive run.
As the game went on Holcombe
fresh legs paid off and they created a lot of chances. The game eventually
finished 8-1 but the way Ipswich played in difficult circumstances was a
credit to the club. There were
a lot of positives to take from the game as Holcombe are a national league
side who we played last year and lost 6-1 with a full strength squad. The
experience will be good for the younger players as they look to make their
transition into the first team.
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