Finally on Thursday the Men’s 2nd team managed to play a match against Portsmouth. Getting a team together proved tricky, the team headed out with only 9 players, including a guest appearance from Will L in goal.

After a quick warm-up, we talked about trying to work hard in defence and use our limited subs as much as possible, to prevent us getting too tired in the double-deep pool. The game started well for us, scoring 2 goals with good shots after breaking down the pool. Portsmouth scored one goal themselves after setting up nicely. However, we regained our 2 goal advantage after a good pass and shot from the pit. Unfortunately, Portsmouth managed to get one back and the first quarter ended 3-2. Also, after the first period a certain fresher was on 2 majors, and we were worried our number of subs would be down to 1 before long.

In the second quarter we continued to work hard to get back and man-mark their team. We limited their opportunities and they only managed to score 1 more goal. Southampton were much faster on the break and this let us set up and score 2 more goals before the half was over. This left the score at 5-3.

After the change of ends I was worried that Portsmouth’s 6 subs would allow them to keep changing, and start to take over as we tired. However, our fitness was much better than theirs and they didn’t manage to get on the score sheet in the third quarter. Long balls out from Will in goal allowed us to keep the pressure on with our attacks and scored 2 more before the end of the quarter.

The final period started with the score 7-3 with us ten minutes away from our first win in over two years. We decided to sit back and defend our lead and continue to counter attack when we could. Unfortunately the last period got a bit scrappy and we gave away several fouls. Certain fresher finally got wrapped in the last few minutes. Thanks to our defence and Will, Portsmouth didn’t manage to score and the game ended 7-3.

We celebrated in style with a team McDonald’s on the way home and nobody had to run in their speedos this time. Hopefully we can continue our winning ways against Basingstoke at home on Sunday.

Scorers:
3 – Andrew Deans
2 – Alex Horlock
1 – Robin Liquorice
1 – Mitchell Clarke (certain fresher)