3s fail to beat Cardiff & Met C (again)

UWIC has not always been a happy hunting ground for B&W teams over the last couple of seasons and today was no exception as we went down 2-1 away to Cardiff & Met C. To put things in perspective, Cardiff had three shots all game, a short-corner flick that went in, a shot well saved by Danny Coll, and a freak deflected goal. Other than that it was one-way traffic. We tried to play our fluent, passing hockey but we really struggled to control the ball on the bouncy pitch and often the extra time and concentration it took to control the ball meant that the early pass was missed. Nevertheless, we nearly opened the scoring when Alex rounded the keeper but was unable to get his legs round far enough to hit the target. The bouncy pitch and some truly bemusing umpiring decisions – mainly against us – made for a frustrating game. Several short corners were won in the first half but the keeper was up to everything we threw at him. Finally, Cardiff were given a short of their own when Colm was climbed on as he stood his ground and, as is always the way with a short that shouldn’t have been given, they scored. No need to panic at half-time and chances continued to come and go in quick succession. Against the run of play, Cardiff doubled their lead when a hopeful ball into the D took a wicked deflection and dribbled in at the far post. Luke pulled one back after driving into the right side of the D and unleashing a volley that nearly took three heads off as it went over the line. We pushed and pushed for the equaliser but to no avail. You don’t win hockey games on points, only on goals scored, and we didn’t take our chances. Man-of-the-Match for terrifying the Cardiff players was Luke.