Southampton 1st Men- BUCS tournament take 3

SUWPC always travel in style, but today was a special occasion as we commandeered a highway maintenance vehicle, fitted with flashing orange lights and the works!

 

As we speed towards Gloucester for our final chapter of the BUCS tournament trilogy, we hear the unfortunate news that Plymouth weren’t coming any longer, it was speculated that they were just too scared to face us (who can blame them). And after a heavy debate by Perry on ‘black and blue’ or ‘white and gold’, it was decided that in fact no-one gives a shit!

We arrived with time to spare for our first match against Exeter for the 4th time this season, with aggregate 2-1 to the good, it was looking to be a tight match, and it didn’t disappoint. Shots were fired by both teams, but the first quarter ended 0-0. We suffered from a severe bout of Waltonitis, as one-on-one Walton lived up to his name, failing to score from close range on multiple occasions, in all fairness Exeter’s keeper had the luckiest/best game of his life, pulling out some extraordinary saves. Exeter pulled ahead in the second quarter to 3-1 with a great finish from Glanville as our only scorer, while their key player was left space to shoot. But the Soton boys don’t give up without a fight as we pulled back to 4-3 by the end of the 3rd quarter, with both Mitch and Charlie finding the net. Special mention needs to go to Mitch’s goal as he flew down the wing, at quite possibly the quickest I’ve ever seen him move other than to get to the front of the Maccy’s queue, only to pull out an incredible dummy/fumble that left the keeper in no man’s land, leaving Mitch free to place a beautiful lob into the far corner. We went into the 4th quarter and quickly fell behind further to 5-3, but we were not to be underestimated as Roberts found the net again, leaving just one goal in it. And after a well worked man-up, Divall found the back of the net, unfortunately not via ‘the stag’. In the dying seconds of the 4th quarter it looked like we were going to clinch the win with one of our players flying down the wing to be one-on-one with the keeper and only a metre from the goal, unfortunately this player was Walton, so we didn’t win and the game finished with a draw 5-5.

With Plymouth not making the trip and therefore forfeiting the game, we decided this would be a good time for us to have our re-play against UWE. After Soton winning 8-7 last time, UWE felt they were cheated by the table misinforming them of the score, however in true sportsmanship and in the true essence of our moto ‘Go Big or Go Bigger’, we decided to beat them again on ‘fairer’ terms. And we did 11-6! The whole team played really well together again, nullifying their best players threat after he caused us so much trouble in the last game, however still scoring 5 of their goals. But it wasn’t enough for UWE, as intricate/lucky flicks were finding the back of the net from the Southampton boys. Divall went on a bit of a goal rampage and scored 4, while Walton, Mitch and Charlie found the net twice. Again special mention to Mitch’s exquisite finishing from man up play leading to a deserved man of the match title!

Sadly spending our weekends in Gloucester is at an end, as the matches have been played and Soton finish the league undefeated with 9 wins and 1 draw, having over double as many points as our closest rivals. Resulting in us progressing to a play-off against the lowest team in the Southern Premier League, there is no reason we cannot win and join the big boys next year again, where we belong! And obviously after another solid weekend of polo a celebratory team snap had to be taken #biggestboys.

Man of the Match– Mitch Clarke

Dick of the Century– Tim Walton

Goal Scorers

• 5- Divall
• 4- Charlie
• 3- Mitch
• 2- Walton
• 1- Rich, Andrea

Major Kings

• Glanville- 3
• Walton, Andrea-2
• Perry, Akbar, Anton, Mitch, Charlie-1