Mens 5s vs Richmond 3s - Loss 2-3

Glorious sunshine accompanied the start to the 5’s pre-seasons friendlies with all of the players arriving promptly 2 minutes before the off.

A sketchy opening resulted in a scrappy short-corner goal for Richmond five minutes from the start. Heads were down, spirits were low and the team was in disarray. It was at this moment, when our hopes for the forthcoming season were in tatters, that David powered forward sending the Richmond defence into panic with his breath-taking speed and grace. Capitalising on Richmond’s horror, James struck a ball into the heart of Richmond D directed at Aaron who, in a moment of tactical genius, provided an air-shot leaving the ball to flow through to David. One-on-one with the keeper there was never any doubt as to the outcome. Chiswick’s resident "Goal Machine" swiftly capitalised bringing the scores level and ending Richmond’s misbegotten dreams of an easy mornings’ Hockey. Chiswick were back in the game!

Some classic end-to-end Hockey followed with Chiswick building some good attacking play from balls provided by the solid back line. Louis Allwood had plenty of opportunities to show off his skills in goal on his Chiswick debut with more than a few shots directed away from goal. Richmond sneaked in another just before half-time when crowding the D with players to bring the score to 2 – 1.

Much of the same occurred in the second half with some great defending at the back holding off the strong Richmond attacking side. Some quick counter attacks spearheaded by Howie gave the Chiswick side plenty of opportunities up at the business end of the pitch. Unfortunately, Richmond scored a third goal halfway through the second half to bring the tally to 3 – 1.

With 10 minutes left, Inesh directed a screamer into the box with James getting a stick on it to dumbfound the keeper and bring the score to 3 – 2, setting up a nail-biting end to the game. Unfortunately, Chiswick couldn’t capitalise on their strong finish with the final score ending 3 – 2. 

There were plenty of positives to take away from the match however with some great movement on and off the ball giving plenty of opportunities to build up some good plays. A solid start to the season for the 5’s.

MoM: Louis Allwood – Great debut, lots of saves
DoD: Aaron McInnes – Airshot from 5 yards

Match Report by David Carroll