The youngsters (and the slightly older generation) of the 5ths travelled to a new side that the club hadn’t played before at junior level to take on their counterparts at Newark.
With eight of the side, playing their hearts out less than 24 hours beforehand in the fourth team game against St Neots, the energy levels were not expected to be high however the team managed to play some decent hockey despite expending a lot of energy in the prior days game.
Spalding brought in some new faces for the mixed friendly with Megan, Isla & Millie making their 11-a-side debuts for the club. All three played very well and showed no nerves with some fantastic tackling, passing and movement.
Spalding also debuted a new goalkeeper, Danny who stepped in the last minute for Steve who had pulled a back muscle in the fours game. And he did extremely well, making a match winning save in the third quarter with a stunning diving save that saw the ball deflected wide of the goal. And he won Man of The Match as well, so not a bad day for the Spalding player!
With the game split into quarters, Spalding started the first quarter brightly and played some great passing and moving hockey. Sam, James, Fred, and Dylan were playing nice triangles, and it was good to see that the side were not focused on trying to get forward all the time but not afraid to go backwards to keep position against a hard-working and very good Newark side.
Kev, Alex, Fred & Sam at the back despite having played in the fours, kept things solid at the back and restricted their hosts to just a handful of half-opportunities.
One of the moves of the second quarter came through a fantastic move on the right. Alex was in acres of space on the right-hand flank and his precise ball to Megan then Jake ultimately found Cheston whose cross just evaded Will.
The third quarter saw the side start to tire however Dylan managed to get a stinging short corner shot away that was well saved by the Newark goalkeeper. This was countered by Danny’s save that kept the score goalless.
The only goal of the game came in the final quarter, and it was the away side that grabbed the win with by the far the move of the match. And it came down the right flank, with Alex again in acres of space with a stunning ball down to Isla. She controlled the ball brilliantly to find Dylan who then set up Will who calmly slotted home from an angle.
So, another win for the development side who have done very well this season, but they can’t let this go to their heads as they are still very much a work in progress. But with game number ten under their belts, there has been a definite progression.
The team have a week off with their next game against Wisbech at the end of the month.
A huge thanks to the hosts for such a friendly welcome and game.
Categories: Match Reports