South Manchester Men's 1s vs Chester Men's 7s

On a rainy Manchester afternoon SMHC captain (Gaz) returned from holiday to lead his team to an outstanding opening day victory against Chester men hockey club 7s. Confidence was high amongst the team during the warm up which was duly translated in to a strong start.

SMHC were on the front foot right from the opening whistle and after some brilliant stick skills by Sean and a pin point pass into the D by Rich there was only one outcome when Gaz found himself one and one with the chester keeper calmy finshing through his legs to open the scoring. all credit to chester as they dusted themselves off and attempted to grab a foothold in the game before some great play by Matt saw the ball intercepted and set up a flowing counter attacking move finished off in style by Jaime Stephenson sending the on looking fans into raptures. The score was 2-0 with the match less than 10 minutes old and SMHC were looking dominant, a couple of promising attacks were calmly thwarted by a calm and assured SMHC defence as Chester struggled to find any momentum before Rich took the wind out of their sails with a characteristic clinical finish to leave SMHC 3-0 up and seemingly cruising to victory.

SMHC began to pile on the pressure with top scorer rich being unusually wasteful in front of goal as chances came and went, on 20 minutes a penalty corner was awarded to SMHC and after a well worked move rich drew a fine save out of the Chester stopper unfortunately for Chester this fell at the stick of Simeon who calmly dispatched the ball into the back of the net. Despite being 4-0 up SMHC continued to apply pressure with slick flowing hockey resulting in chances coming thick and fast, a moment of brilliance from Jaime on the left wing forced the Chester defence on to the back foot and when the ball was played inside to Gaz his cheeky flick over the defenders stick left him one on one with the on rushing keeper once again, a calm finish through the keepers legs saw SMHC stretch their lead to 5-0. By this time Simeon had developed goal fever and duly pushed forward from left back which was rewarded when his fine strike found the bottom corner just before half time. As the half time whistle sounded to bring an awesome first half performance to an end the score was SMHC 6 Chester 0.

The contrast in half time team talks could not have been more different as SMHC were told to keep the pressure on and not to get complacent. The second half began with Chester looking determined to salvage something from this game but SMHC were far superior in every department as more of the same ensued with SMHC dominating possession.Simeon once more found himself inside the D searching out is third goal of the game which almost arrived 10 minutes after the restart from a deflection which left the keeper scrambling only for the ball to clear the bar.
After good work down the left by Jamie allowed Gaz time and space to strike a powerful shot to the keepers right resulted in a good save seeting up a calamitous mistake that nobody expected , Sean picked up the rebound and played the ball in to a dangerous position with Gaz waiting to pounce with what surely would have completed his hat trick, but before the ball could reach him a scrambling goal keeper face planted into the ground sending the bal flying into the bottom corner. Players from both sides looked in amazement as Clare pointed to the half way line as SMHC made it 7-0

Rich’s frustration built as more chances came and went until he rediscovered his goal scoring touch with two quick fire goals one after great work on the right from Sean resulted in the ball being fired across the D where rich was waiting to sweep home, and the second coming after a powerful run to the top of the D by Tom allowed him to slip the ball to Gaz who burst in to the D beating his marker and unleashed a powerful shot across the face of the goal (which was arguably going in anyway)but was superbly deflected in to the top corner by Rich leaving the keeper stranded. With the match winding down Vivek burst forward to the top of the D and created space for a great shot which nestled in the bottom corner making the score 10-0. This was the first time SMHC have every struck double figures in a game and the players were clearly happy with their efforts.

Chester Had the last word in this very one sided affair after a stray football distracted the defenders attention allowing Chester attacker to ghost past them towards the right touch line putting SMHC on the back foot. Some smart passing by Chester allowed them to capitalise on this momentary distraction to grab a consolation goal just before the full time whistle with a smart finish from a tight angle.

Whether sunning it up in Dubai, fixing their car or just having their tattoo finished off the players absent on this historic day will be left rueing the fact they missed such a great opportunity to get amongst the goals because This was a very succesful outing for an in form SMHC side with various records beging set. the game yielded ; The highest ever win for SMHC , the first game where six indiviuals players hit the back of the net in the same game, oh and not forgeting Rich gained the hounour of being the first SMHC player to score a hatrick !

So a 10-1 final score and players returning to the fold for the second game of the season away at Sale next Saturday things are looking good for Table topping SMHC