______Soton 6 – 1 Bath_________

We weren’t entirely sure what to expect from Bath this year and were slightly nervous that they had bought a full team against our 5, luckily the rest of the team turning up just in time. With limited time to get ready, Amy graciously offered to pull in the lanes and flags despite my protests.

We started the game cautiously but strong especially in defence. Good communication meant that no one slipped through and there was a drop in place when required. Matt opened the scoring for us earning a 1-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

We continued where we set off with another strong defensive display, a feature of the entire match, this time defending the deep. Again keeping a clean sheet, despite missing the massive D! In attack Jesse scored what I believe is his first goal, whilst I scored from the pit after Horlock patiently waited until I had ponderously made my way into the pit. Half time 3-0. By now we had a firm grip of the match with simple but effective tactics in attack and a great team work rate in defence. By clearing the pit of their one good defender, the pit was open for almost the entire match although in Jan we do need to train playing against a drop.

More of the same in the third quarter, with Perry, Horlock and myself each hitting the  net. At the other end I think Lawrence had finally been called into action to make a save of note, by now the warning signs were there on the counter with Bath finally being able to begin to exploit their full squad.

We went into the final quarter 6-0 up determined to keep the clean sheet. Unfortunately in the last few minutes they finally broke on us, Lawrence’s heroics could not help us and the match ended 6-1, a great result for a fantastic performance, I think this is our best match of the season by far, we were organised and communicated well in defence and our attack is starting to show some more structure and menace. The only real downside is the recent drop in Perry’s goal rate which seems to be linked with his failure to progress in the gym.

Everyone have a good Christmas and I look forward to getting back in the pool in the New Year!

Majors

Perry – 2

Rodger – 1

Goals

BK-2

Matt-1

Jesse-1

Stark-1

Perry-1

Man of the match

Horlock – A great individual goal, well rounded play and a definite increase in awareness of the game.