27th November 2022
Bristol & West 4 [6-2] Team Bath Buccaneers 6
Report by Ben Douglas
The 4s arrived at a damper than usual Mangotsfield astro with the overcast winter conditions reflecting the ominous possibility of staring down a seventh consecutive defeat. Up against a Team Bath Buccs team that were looking to win a fourth on the bounce, getting a result wasn’t going to be an easy task.
Optimism grew as a strong 4s squad gathered for some pre match tactics on the team etch-a-sketch provider by skipper Phil. A quick scoop of Gin & Tonic flavoured pre match caffeine powder by Mike, which has to be one of the oddest flavour choices I can possibly imagine, and we were ready to go.
Some early possession and transfers around the back gave us confidence to grow into the game. We started to progress the ball further up the pitch and won ourselves our first penalty corner of the afternoon. Injected with laser precision by Andy Bryce to Jeremy on top D and a one strong flick later and we were 1 up, the faces of the Buccaneers revealed that they’d realised they were in for some stormy seas this afternoon.
A quick bit of play down the left hand side unleashed Brycey on a marauding run past the opposition defence chasing the ball into an empty D, with the crowd on the sidelines gasping at the speed he flew with. Only for him to be brought down by the last man. A penalty flick was give by the umpire and Ted stepped up to despatch it clinically past the keeper into the top left.
Our second penalty corner of the game and we attempted to return it to the injector, which saw Brycey sweep the pass from Jez into the bottom right corner across the goal, only for the ball to be poked in by Ryan waiting on the said post, we’d need the VAR officials to decide who that goal should be attributed to.
A fantastic display by the whole team ended with a 6-2 victory to the 4s with the other goals coming from debutant Ben, Sam & Leo. Some heavy defensive play in the last 5 of the game meant that we upped our GD for the season to -4, which for a team who were bottom of the table at the start of Saturday, shows how competitive we have been in every game this season. Ryan was awarded MoM for two brilliant assists using his trademark flying down the right wing and a slightly dubious poke in goal on the line. Ted took home the defensive excellence award for some brilliant decision making, utilising his aerials and accurate slap passes into the midfield, as well as taking the p flick with ice cold assurance.
A rejuvenated 4s team had lifted themselves off the bottom of the table and we hope this winning form can continue next weekend against Weston Super Mare!
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