Bournemouth-Romsey 9-1
Bournemouth was too strong and consistent for Romsey U12 boys.
They started the match with scoring six goals in first period but after that, Romsey got better into the play and in the two following periods only two goals were scored per period.
As a mum and Romsey fan I don’t think the final score completely reflected the play. In particularly in the third period, Romsey played really well and had several chances and near goals.
Sam played his first match with the team and also scored our only goal.
George was nominated “player of the match”.
Keep your heads up boys-you fought hard and played your best.
U12 Girls leave it late to snatch win!
Romsey made a strong start and dominated possession and it was not long before they had their first goal. Harriet F made a strong run from midfield and found Alisa S in the D unmarked and she calmly slotted the ball into the goal. 1-0
As the second 20 started started Salisbury stepped up a notch and were working very well as a team and put the Romsey defence , led by Tilly D under great pressure , despite great defending from Hannah T , Isobel L , Hattie K , Eliza H and some excellent saves and kicking by Ellie G Salisbury scored two goals during this time.
The pressure was really on Romsey now , could they respond? A minute later the whistle went for full time, the girls had left it late but grabbed the winner in the nick of time.Mens 4s battling performance brings comfort!
Mens 4s played Gillingham away on Saturday the 11th of Jan.U14Bs draw away in Pompey
Portsmouth 3 – Romsey 3
No Portsmouth started strongly creating two early chances before a player waltzed into the box and rounded the keeper but Owen raced back to make an amazing goal line clearance. This spurred Romsey into action with Harry, Lorne and Luke taking control of midfield creating a series of chances for Jack M, Rupert and Lorne. Then the midfield trio combined from a short corner – Jack S to Luke and he found Lorne on the left. His first time strike was well saved. Portsmouth attacked down the right and Freddie and Owen stopped them, they tried the left and Will and Jack S stopped them. Any attempts on goal found Ollie in fine form. The breakthrough came when Will found Lorne on the right he rounded one player, entered the D and blasted goal ward. His shot was blocked and fell to Thomas, his shot was also blocked but theball fell to Jack M, his strike was goal bound before deflected off Lorne and in. Unfortunately Portsmouth soon drew level with following a slick passing home.
The second half was equally exciting. Romsey took control and had several shots blocked before Portsmouth rallied.Owen, Freddie and Ollie made a number of brave saves before Portsmouth broke the deadlock with two goals in quick succession.
Romsey improved their game further. Will breaking from his own half passed to Thomsa, he crossed to Jack M whose shot was deflected wide. From the short corner, Jack S pushed the ball to Luke, he played in Will on the left and his unstoppable shot reduced the deficit.
Romsey continued their passing game, Rupert crossed to Lorne, he passed to the centre of the D where Luke stepped in and struck an unstoppable shot into the bottom corner making it 3-3.
The two sides continued the end to end excellent hockey until the final whistle. A fair result from two outstanding teams.
U14Bs miss out….just
Bournemouth 6 Romsey 5
Bournemouth dominate the early exchanges but Romsey stood strong on the flanks. Freddie and Daniel won a series of tackles, whilst down the middle Owen and Ellison defence seemed unbeatable. Gradually Bournemouth found space in the D but Jo was in outstanding form saving three efforts in quick succession.
Slowly Romsey grew into the game breaking frequently through midfield. The possession was soon rewarded. A short corner was received by Will and he cleverly found Luke to the left of the goal who struck first time into the bottom corner. The next corner was played accurately by Jack S to Luke who touched into the D and fired home. Bournemouth were dangerous on the counter attack and scored from a clinical counter attack. Jack S, Lorne and Jack M all went close before another rapid counter attack led to a Bournemouth fourth.
Romsey were still pressing with Ollie creating half chances for Jack M and Luke before Lorne dribbled through midfield and played in Ollie who raced into the D before shooting in the right corner.
The second half saw an even more determined Romsey camped in the Bournemouth half. Romsey were unlucky in the D when shots from Luke, Ollie, Jack M and Will were blocked on the line. Within a few minutes the attempts were repeated but Bournemouth managed to deflect for a corner.
The corner fell to Freddie who passed to Thomas who made no mistake and scored from 4 metres. Unfortunately, two attacks and short corners from Bournemouth and it was 6-4. Romsey continued to press the defence and were able to push into midfield surrounding the D. Shots continued to be fired in but were blocked. Jack M received an excellent through ball from Owen, he rounded the keeper only to see his shot cleared off the line. At last Lorne was rewarded dribbling into the D and firing an unstoppable shot left of the keeper.
Romsey were now scenting the equaliser. Ollie, Luke, Will and Jack M saw shots blocked as pressure grew and with the last struck of the ball, Jack S final effort deflected wide.
An outstanding display against the top of the league team which Romsey deserved to win.
Men’s 4s Finish First Half in Style
Men’s 4s celebrated the end of the year with a good win over Poole Dolphins 6-2.
After a tight first half which ended 3-2 and saw two good strikes from Morgan R and one from Sean R , a great team goal started by Phil O and ably assisted by Tom W.
However Romsey knew they had to step things up in the second half, and they did.
Solid in defence giving the midfielders and attackers more licence to roam soon paid dividends and the important 4th goal was scored Tom W with it to settle Romsey nerves.
Two more goals soon followed with a audacious lob over the keeper from Morgan R and a calm close range finish from Sean R.
Poole heads had gone down and Romsey fully deserved their win after a great second half team performance.
Man of the match – Phil O , a solid midfield performance!
Ladies 1s finish strong
Romsey hosted Southampton 2xi in their last game before the Christmas break. Romsey started the game very slowly, making lots of unforced mistakes which eventually gifted Southampton the opportunity to go 1-0 up before 10 minutes had passed. As they gradually woke up, Romsey began to work their way out of the Southampton press and were kept in the game by GK Antonia Luckhurst who made some great saves to prevent the visitors going further ahead.Santa joins in the Junior Christmas Fun Day
Over 50 members of the junior section and their families were joined by Father Christmas for a morning of fun and games at Romsey School.
7 teams made up of members from all age groups, coaches and parents played a 7 aside round robin tournament.
Hot chocolate and mince pies were served to maintain energy levels and everyone played in fine spirits to ensure that Santa will return on Christmas Eve to fill their stockings!
U12 Girls 6-0 win against Winchester
The U12 Romsey team put on a very strong performance against Winchester on Sunday.
Each girl gave one hundred percent in a match which saw the majority of attacking play by the formidable Romsey team.
Every player displayed greatly improved stick skills, and their fantastic pace and accurate passing up the field meant the Winchester goalie had a very busy morning!
P.O.M Harriet F.
Home tournament brings out the best in the Under8s.
Under 8s Romsey Tournament – Sunday 8 December
The 4th tournament of the season gave us an opportunity to play at home and host the tournament. The format was changed so that all matches would complete in 90 minutes to allow the Under 10s tournament to follow. This produced a very intense schedule for this young group with 3 consecutive matches, then a 20 minute break, followed by a further 3 matches. We felt in a strong position to benefit from this with a strong squad of 10 players, but due to injury and illness unfortunately Laurence and Emma had to withdraw. As both of them are key defensive lynch-pins, it presented a tough challenge to the squad and also the coach’s rotation plans to keep the players fresh. Such is the enthusiasm of the youngsters to gain tournament exposure that Rory and Hunter were keen to make the most of the others misfortune.
We started strongly against New Forest which meant that Cherry had an easy time sharing defensive duties with William. Hamish and Noah controlled the game well and both scored early on to calm nerves and enable early squad rotation. Final score 2-0.
Hamish swapped into defence for the next game against Andover A enabling Cherry to move back into midfield. We dominated the game and Noah picked up his second goal in 2 games to give Romsey a 1-0 win at the final whistle. The squad’s performance in these games were absolutely top class. The passing and movement was fantastic and a real pleasure to see after their hard work in training. In particular, Gracemade a great run from one side of the goal to the other at a free-hit which Cherry spotted and provided an excellent pass. We were playing well and were ready for the next match.
We hadn’t played Trojans since the 1st tournament in early October when they comfortably beat us in our only defeat of the season so far. So we were keen to show how much we had improved. It was a tense game with the team giving maximum commitment. The first 5 minutes action took place close to the Romsey goal, with the whole team tackling hard and trying to clear their lines. Hamish made some brilliant tackles and clearances in front of the goal which was reminiscent of the backs to the wall performance just over 12 months ago at the Southampton tournament. Unfortunatelyhistory repeated itself and we conceded a well-worked goal. Strangely, the rest of the game was much more even as the team managed to pass the ball out of defence with Hamish and Noah making strong runs towards the Trojans goal. We almost conceded a second goal after a very fast break, but William stepped out of defence to put off the attacker so he hit the post. In spite of more good tackling from Olivia, Grace, Jake and Cherry, we conceded a disappointing own goal just before the final whistle resulting in a final score of 0-2. Nevertheless it was a major improvement and we can look forward to playing them again in the New Year.
After a break to refuel with cake and sweets, the team took on Winchester. They shrugged of any disappointment from the Trojans loss and quickly got a 3-0 lead, all scored by Hamish. He was immediately substituted which allowed Gulliver and Hunter to come on and join the fun. With a less experienced midfield, the defence was quite busy breaking up attacks. Grace demonstrated that she can play anywhere as after scoring lots of goals in recent tournaments, she showed great timing in breaking up attack after attack then passing the ball out to midfield. Winchester scored a consolation goal so the end result was 3-1, another good win for Romsey.
The next match was against Andover B, but this was a stronger side than the ‘A’ side we played earlier. After we’d just missed the goal from an excellent cross, Andover broke up the pitch to open the scoring. They then repeated the trick a few minutes later, resulting in a 0-2 loss. Perhaps tiredness and missing 2 of our usual defenders contributed to this frustrating defeat.
However the team re-grouped again for the final match. Noah wasn’t showing signs of tiredness, running onto lots of passes from Hamish and the rest of the midfield. He scored a quick-fire hat-trick to take his total for the tournament to 5. Every tournament he comes alive in one of the games and is virtually unstoppable!
So after an hour’s worth of playing, we’d won 4 matches and lost 2. In some ways this could seem disappointing compared with previous tournaments, but the team’s attitude, commitment and resolve to adapt to the loss of 2 teammates was amazing and was reflected in the standard of hockey they played which was their best yet. We’ll certainly look forward to the remaining tournaments in the New Year and hope to continue the progress made in 2019.