Last Friday, the first and only knock out round of the SUWP tournament took place in the majestic sport centre of Bath University, with Soton needing to beat Bath to stay in the tournament, having lost to Plymouth.

In the first two quarters, Bath had the upper hand of the game playing stronger in both attack and defence. The first quarter ended with our team receiving two goals and managing to score only one goal with a long shot. (2-1)

The second quarter was quite similar to the first one, with Bath scoring another goal and our side managing to score one goal only. The end of the first half found us losing 4-2.

However, the second half of the game belonged to us. The extra swimming sessions paid off as our team managed to maintain a very good rhythm in the game and scored 4 impressive goals in the third quarter. The goals were scored from man ups, as well as even-attacks; with clever passes into the pit and shots around on the arc. The score at the end of the third quarter was 6-6.

With our spirits up from our great come back in the third quarter and knowing that our fitness was better than theirs, our team continued the game in the fourth quarter, which was full of excitement, passion and a considerable dose of violence. Until the 3rd minute of the quarter both teams had scored one goal, but the Soton lads then scored 2 goals in a row, giving us the feeling that the game was over with only two minutes to go. Additionally, Duncan Jenkins with his magical “clumsy” technique ended up with an elbow to the face and a Bath player excluded for brutality. However, this wasn’t the end, as Bath scored a goal making us again feel worried. Thankfully, we managed to keep possession of the ball long enough in order to finish the game with a one goal advantage, the scores set at 8-9.

It is worth mentioning that Will Logothetis managed to get wrapped in the first two minutes of the game for sarcastically clapping to a referee’s decision. Also Tree can easily be dubbed the punching bag of the game as he had to leave the game, in the 4th quarter after entering for 2 minutes and getting a cold-blooded punch on the nose.

Support from Ali and HK was much appreciated! Our two Soton supporters managed to shout louder than the 50 Bath supporters (actual fact) and they were not even rowdy, noisy Greeks/Cypriots.

Scorers:

5 – Panos Logothetis
2 – Henry Perkins
1/2 – Josh Rowland (on game sheet: 1 goal, he and teammates remember 2 goals)
1 – Will Divall