The Men’s 2s took the field again this week looking to continue their winning streak to 3-0 on a lovely Saturday afternoon. While they managed to achieve that, the game was not in the vein that was anticipated.
From the outset Newent, with a youthful forward line and some quick passes, pressured the defense hard, meaning the previous patient and controlled platform didn’t come to life for GCHC. Continued pressure and a lucky deflection off of Arthurs pads meant the team went 1-0 down inside of 10 minutes.
However the bounce back came quickly with James Readstone. After the ball had been moved up the pitch a selfless extra pass from Captain Don meant James Readstone had an almost empty goal to score, 1-1.
GCHC continued to apply pressure gaining mulitple PCs but unable to convert this week, getting called for a double touch on injection and also hitting the post.
The flow of play continued to move back and forth between the teams with Newent once again grabbing the initiative and another goal sneaking past the GCHC GK but only just after once again getting the lions share of the save on the ball.
GCHC came back again with a PC which didn’t immediately hit the back of the net after a short save by the GK but was cleared up and put away by returning player Aidan Limbird. (Good to have you back for the moment!)
Once again on level pegging Newent pushed hard and a strong run from a young forward combined with a defensive communication error from GCHC saw him through to score a solo goal he is sure to be proud of.
Stress started to get to GCHC with some increasingly silly decisions saw two yellow cards being given to Rocco Giannone and Jakob Tovey, however bizarrely this seemed to have the opposite effect most would see. After the first yellow was given instead of consolidating GCHC continued to push and scored the equaliser through Tovey, and then as he took his time on the bench Max Carter snuck in with less than a few minutes to go capturing the winning goal against the run of the match.
3 points for Gloucester but a disappointing performance given our previous games, gaining more cards than goals was never the aim, so for the next week focus will be on team performance and attitude, all to gain us another win.