TVHC Mens’ 3s –v- BRACKNELL – 31st October 2009

After a hard fought nil-all draw last week, Valley were hoping for a better result against Bracknell, whom we had already beaten once this season. Agreement was made before the start to lend Brandon to the opposition for the first half (last Valley player to turn up – please note for future reference, this applies to everyone with the exception of Derek!). With Bails and Sam umpiring, the game started in bright sunshine – debuts for Valley for both Mika Janhunen and Paul Mayer in this game with Mika starting on the left wing.

The game started with both teams not really making many in-roads into the other. There were a few runs by Dan Newlands down the right but with Dan tending to fall over at the key moments, attacks seemed to peter out. Down the left, debutant Mika was finding his way around the hockey pitch very well and linked up with Rory, Forrest and Matt to cause a number of problem – one of these led to the first goal with a pin-point cross from Mika to Rory, who slotted home his first senior goal for the club beyond a flailing Bracknell keeper. Rory’s second goal, around five minutes later, owed a lot to the goalkeeper’s mis-timing, however, Rory made him make the mistake and so Valley went 2-0 up.

Paul Mayer came on to replace Mika on the left. Harrison, playing left half, had grown in confidence from his debut last week and was starting to be more assertive. Matt and Forrest were also beginning to understand each other in mid-field which led to Valley dominating the play. Bracknell did have a key player, however, who was very difficult to tackle and was generating most of the Bracknell attacks, some of which were finding their way through – Brandon managed to beat all the Valley defence only to be thwarted by Derek. Half time talk was fairly confident with the understanding that we were playing wide with Dan and Mika/Paul, also that we were causing them more problems than they were causing us.

Second half and Brandon and Harrison swapped sides. This half saw a resumption of the same sort of play, with Valley mostly dominating. Matt da Silva was having one of his usual “no one shall pass me and I will win the ball” games, which meant that at every breakdown of play, Valley would have the ball.

Valley’s third goal came from a move that split the Bracknell defence. Both Dan and Rory helped in creating the chance that left Mika in front of goal with the goalie spread-eagled on the floor. At this point, Mika delicately lifted the ball over the goalie to score his debut goal on his debut. Later on in the half, Matt led an attack which involved Paul, Dan, Forrest and Rory with Matt ending up with the shot on goal, which tantalisingly hit the post. The defence were kept busy with Derek involved a lot as well as Tom and Niall sorting out a number of attacks.

Valley ran out deserved winners 3-0 in the end.

Man of the match : This was a difficult choice between Rory (with 2 goals) and Mika, however, on debut after 6 weeks of training – Mika is man of the match.