Ipswich- East Suffolk HC Vs Bourne Deeping HC

After winning the toss and electing for the push back, the visiting captain found himself busy early on in the away goal as IES came out of the blocks raring to go. Within minutes the home side clearly had the advantage of playing on their own surface as the dragons failed to keep any possession or their footing. Penalty corners were awarded to the home side who were definitely on the offensive. The first breakthrough came shortly after 10 minutes when some scrabbling in front of goal found the ball over the line. Shortly after conceding the first an uncharacteristic handling error by the BDHC midfield saw IES breaking in numbers and the overload was too much for the dragon’s keeper to deal with and the home side had an easy tap in at the far post. After the 2nd goal it seemed that the visiting side finally found their feet and were able to stop replicating scenes from Bambi on ice. Slick passing through the midfield, that has become key to the start of the season, soon became the norm once again. Chances and penalty corners came and went but the visitors were able to see the deficit remain at two going into half time.

Half Time: IES HC 2 – 0 BDHC

The 2nd half was started much better by the visiting side who found themselves pressing further and further up the field and winning more penalty corners. One of these found its way to Alex Glover, who after stopping the injection, then went on to swing his Hammer of Thor sending the ball screaming into the bottom corner of the home teams goal. Game on! After the restart the Dragons continued to pressurise the home side and then the ball found its way to Harry Oakley on the far post who was able to tap in from close range unopposed to draw the game level. The home side then found a bit of fight about them and managed to cause some problems for the visitors. Penalty corners were awarded and saw good saves from the Dragons’ Goal Guardian as well as a cool clear off the line on the post from veteran defender Andy Briault. However the waves of attack kept coming from the home side when an unmarked player on the penalty spot had opportunity to sweep at goal. The ball grazed past the BDHC keeper and went in to regain the advantage to the home side. With the clock ticking down the visitors continued to attack to try to regain the common ground, but penalty corner after penalty corner went unconverted. Then in the dying minutes (two and a half remaining by the umpires watch) a pair from the home team broke down the dragons left flank chasing a loose ball. As keeper Page came flying out of his own D to try and deal with the situation, it got a little ugly as an attacking player managed to tip it onto the stranded keepers padding resulting in an automatic yellow card and the end of the game for the skipper. As well as the keeper being sent off, salt could have been rubbed into the wounds further by the resulting penalty corner. Once again the defensive team, minus a guy in padding, dealt with the situation superbly with another fine stop on the line from Andy B. After this elation the Dragons went back on the offensive and were rewarded with another trademark penalty corner right on the final whistle. A slightly unorthodox routine saw the ball come out wide right to a Bourne Deeping player, having a crack at goal his shot deflected for Richard Collins to play a superb square cut Kevin Pietersen would have been proud of into the home sides goal. Had they done it, had the Dragons pulled off the great escape and kept their unbeaten start to the season going? Unfortunately not, after the two umpires decided between them that the ball was played dangerously before being struck home.

Final Score: Ipswich- East Suffolk HC 3 – 2 Bourne Deeping HC