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Second versus third … the much talked about 6 pointer! Win and Wimbledon Men’s 4s consolidate ourselves in second place and have the chance to push on and put pressure on the BromBeck side sitting at the top of the table; lose and the top 4 is thrown open again and it all gets a bit tighter… this was a crunch game!
A tough away win earlier in the season and watching the Oxford 3s team rapidly climbing the table in the preceding games, all indicated a big challenge coming into this game. We knew we were in for a game where we weren’t likely to outrun our opponents. The difference in fitness made it all the more important to get our basics right and make sure we stuck to what we had been doing so well in our prior games. We targeted around 70% of the possession in order to dominate the game and stop Oxford from playing, but from the outset, against a confident, winning team, this seemed ambitious and so it proved…
We knew Oxford would run, a lot, but the first 10 minutes suggested that perhaps we’d underestimated just how much! It was a ragged and frantic start to the game with neither team really being able to settle on the ball. Both teams created chances and Wimbledon looked most threatening working down both flanks with the full backs, Burtie and Brad (and later, Stevo) providing good overlapping attacking options.
However, after about 20 minutes, the deadlock was broken by a scrappy Oxford goal. As usual, Wimbledon had looked solid at the back and it took an odd deflection to eventually break the defence down. It came from an aimless slap into the D by an Oxford midfielder which took a deflection off one of their forwards, looped up and just evaded Geoff in goal, dropping into the back of the net.
Despite the disappointment at going a goal down, Wimbledon Men’s 4s were not disheartened and it actually seemed to settle us down and we started to play some good hockey. Shortly after the goal, we came within millimetres of being back on terms after some quick thinking from Russ M (aka. Legend) took a quick self pass on a free hit on the top to the D, drove in and let fly while Oxford were still sleeping. With the goalkeeper beaten all ends up, the ball agonisingly struck the post and flew away to safety.
We continued to create chances and were then denied a spectacular goal just before half time. Another quickly taken free hit in the 25 set Girth up for a screamer of a reverse stick strike (who’d have guessed?!) which although the keeper got across to, he had no chance of keeping it out. The ball flew into the top corner, only for it to be disallowed. We had not carried the ball a full 5 metres before hitting it into the D – we’d fallen foul of the new rules, and therefore went in 1-0 down at half time.
Second half continued much like the first with some good build up play for both sides and some good defending keeping each team at bay. We managed to have a good deal of the ball at the beginning of the second half and some searching runs from Russ B and some good hold up play from all the forwards led to chances, but nothing came of them. As is often our problem we just couldn’t convert possession into results.
Throughout the whole game, Oxford did not present too many threats from open play, but they did however look more dangerous from short corners. Wimbledon kept fighting hard and managed to win a shortie for ourselves. I’d like to say that a gloriously well worked short corner routine resulted in a great goal, but I’d be lying. The injection and stop were routine, but what followed more closely resembled a game of pinball than hockey. An Irish flick was deflected by B-Rye who was making his customary run in towards the flick spot; although he got a stick on the ball, it was perhaps more in self defence than anything else. The ball was then deflected across the face of the goal with a number of Oxford defenders failing to clear and Burtie ghosted in from the injection mark getting to the ball first and put Wimbledon right back in the game. 1-1 and all to play for…
Alas, two more Oxford short corners within a few minutes of each other were to be our undoing shortly afterwards, Oxford converted both and we were now 3-1 down with around 7 minutes to play. Perhaps showing their inexperience, or the exuberance of youth, Oxford kept pressing forward looking for further goals. This created spaces for Wimbledon to carry the ball and some good hold up play by Girth midway into Oxford’s half allowed him to find Hoff on the 25 yard line. Carrying the ball into the D, Hoff managed to get a pass away to Charlie C who, for the second week in a row, fired off a first time shot which was rocketing into the roof of the net… had it not struck the goalkeeper in the grill, dropped and trickled into the corner of the net. It was a great strike and it doesn’t matter how it crosses the line! 2-3 with 5 minutes to go.
Although we created two good chances in the last couple of minutes, with Hoff forcing a good save with a shot across the face of the goal and Russ B and Girth just failing to link up with a final pass, we were unable to find the equaliser and we came up just shy. Looking back, we didn’t play too badly throughout the game, but we didn’t get close to the 70% possession target we set at the beginning of the game, which allowed Oxford too much time with the ball to create chances, win short corners and capitalise. There were however plenty of positives that can be taken forward into next week where we have another toughie against Wimbledon Men’s 5s, the local derby!
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