Bare 11 Bees take the points

The Bees, with a skeleton crew of 11 after Michael Blackwood dropped out due to illness, travelled across to West Kirby for the rearranged frozen pitch game from last month. Half of the squad had, for the lack of a better word, 'enjoyed' themselves the night previously so to say there were a few rough heads was an understatement.

The first 15 minutes were evident to this as the Bees struggled to break down the home team and the cutting edge was missing up front. However, it was a rather fortunate goal that broke the deadlock as Alan Leonard played Mark Smith in, playing in an unfamiliar left wing role, and Smith lifted it near post, past the oncoming keeper and in.

This opened the floodgates and it was all South Manchester as away netminder Dean Colasurdo made a grand total of 2 saves all game. The second came not long after as Hampton got himself on the scoresheet after a shocking miss in front of the open goal minutes earlier. Wood played a fine aerial for Smith to run onto who selflessly squared for Hampton to finish. Antony Rigby added another to his ever growing tally to make it 3-0 at half time.

The second half started in the same manner as the first and it took over 10 minutes of the second half before the home team were broken down. Ashley Critten and Mark Scholes were playing high up the pitch, helping the attack and Rigby and Tom Ainsley constantly threatened from the right. Wood and matthew Bottomley marshalled the centre midfield and it was a fine tackle by the latter that started the play that eventually led to Hampton adding his second and the Bees fourth.

Richard Greenhough, quiet in front of goal most of the game, was determined not to let this game go by without a goal or two. He exceeded all expectations by netting a hat-trick in 10 minutes, perhaps his second the most impressive as a lifted ball was swatted into the goal, baseball style.

A fine performance all round and a well deserved Man of the Match for left back Leonard who never stopped running in both defending and assisting in the attacking plays. DoD awarded to captain Gareth Hampton for both the previous nights antics and the blatant miss in the first half.

Some tough games coming up for the Bees but a friendly on Saturday may give the team a chance to try new tactics, penalty corners and formations.