Sunday 12 October 2019
Romsey 8 – Andover 0
Romsey U12 Boys played Andover at home in the second match of the season. Despite the rain hanging in the air the boys played beautiful hockey from start to finish. Oscar scored the first goal, assisted by Tom, followed by Freddie and George finishing the first part 3-0 to Romsey. In the second part Jake was quick to score followed by a reverse stick from Josh, assisted by Milo. Milo came back to score the 6th goal with some help from Henry and in the last-minute George scored 7-0 off Theo’s a short corner. Due to Romsey advantage Tom decided to swap the boys normal playing positions in the third part of the match. Tom, Callum and Dylan, who beautifully managed our defence line, got to play up front together with Ben and Theo, Oscar and George were set to play in defence. Despite some difficulties to stick to the new positions the boys carried on great team play and before the end of game Freddie scored a final goal, finishing the match 8-0 to Romsey. Great to see that passing the ball payed off and that the goals scored and direct assists included all thirteen boys. Benji had a quiet day in the Romsey goal😊.
As Tom said last match, “Remember boys-we win as a team and we lose as a team” with the exception that today we certainly won as a TEAM. Well done all boys well done Tom for super coaching and Noah for umpiring.
Another Gr….. eight win for U14 Boys!
Romsey 8 – Winchester 1
A wet and soggy morning in Winchester did not dampen the spirit of this energetic team of Romsey boys!
They were rewarded early on when Ollie attacked into the D from the right neatly tucking the ball into corner. Winchester continued to counter attack in numbers but were frustrated with an in form defence of Ellison, Owen, Freddie, Jack J and Daniel who frequently stole the ball and turned defence into attack.
Romsey soon scored again when Harry found Jack M in the D and he made no mistake from 5 metres. Romsey kept up the pressure with Thomas, Rupert and Henry combining before playing the ball forward to Jack M who saw his effort brilliantly saved by an in form keeper and then coolly lifted the rebound over the outstretched keeper and into the net.
The second half saw Romsey dominate the early exchanges with Thomas, Jack J and Will all having good efforts saved by the keeper before Jack M smashed the loose ball into the net. The pressure led to a number of short corners and finally Lorne, passing to Luke who had advanced to the left of the goal, firmly striking into the bottom left corner.
Lorne then dribbled past 3 players to the goal line before setting up number 4 for Jack M. Goal number 8 followed a burst through midfield by Jack S who found Luke just outside the D on the left who neatly placed the ball into the bottom right corner.
A sharp and focussed performance by a group of hungry players who were fully on form!
M3s…Harwood to the rescue….again!
Men’s 3rd XI 2, Yateley 3rd XI 1
Romsey won a hard fought encounter in the wet, to secure their first win of the season.
Romsey were the brighter starters and after James B and TK won the early battles in the middle of the pitch Romsey won a penalty corner. The plan was for Ben Parker to push the ball out to Colin Harwood who would draw the defenders and slip the ball left to Luke W, and that is exactly what they did, Luke shooting in at the angle to put Romsey 1-0 up.
As Yateley started to win possession and make attacks of their own it was Romsey’s defence that ensured they stayed ahead. Lukasz Suleja capped a man of the match performance winning a number of last ditch tackles, ably supported by Duncan Sanders playing his first game of the season, and full backs Dan Newman and Ben Parker.
After Oli G had made a fine couple of saves from Yateley penalty corners, Yateley eventually equalised from another penalty corner when they followed up on their first move to shoot in to the corner.
Romsey upped their game and Ewan K and Dan Blackman both made chances for Carl Hendy but he was thwarted by Yateley defence.
As the second half started, Romsey were reliant on their back four and Oli G in goal to keep them level, and attacked on the counter.
After winning another penalty corner, Parker played the ball to Harwood again, this time he beat the two onrushing defenders to slam the ball past the keeper for a 2-1 Romsey lead.
As Suleja blocked several waves of Yateley attacks, with Parker and Sanders making vital clearances, along with more Oli G saves, Romsey countered.
First Harwood played in James B, who beat his man and squared to Hendy, only for the forward to narrowly miss the ball and it run wide of the goal, and then Luke W made a mazey run form the right corner but no Romsey stick to convert, and then Dan Blackman and Tom M combined for the former to drive in to circle but again no end result.
Romsey hung on, with the crowd swelling for the next game, to secure their first 3 points of the season at the third attempt.
M1s win well away at Alton
Alton Men’s 1XI 1 – Romsey Men’s 1XI 5
A nervous dressing room pre game, fresh in the minds of the Romsey gents was the pre season thumping dished out by Alton. The quiet calm had the opposite affect, Romsey starting much the brighter side. The first breakthrough came early in from smart work by M Robertson, winning the ball back high up the left wing, Morgan plays a pass in field to M Lumley, who moves it onward to L Birch in the opposition D. Birch swivels on the spot to hit the ball off the back foot into the far right corner. 1 up inside 5 mins, just the attacking start the coach, Stuart Robertson was hoping for.
Lumley involved once for, and not for the last time, for goal 2. A mazy dribble across the pitch and into the D, before a mishit ends up in the bottom left corner, who knows if this would have gone in with a sweeter strike?
Alton had begun to assert some dominance in the game at this point via through many penalty corners, one to be denied brilliantly by an in form, Jamie Miller who clears one off the line over the bar.
Another penalty corner….. to Romsey. Dan Miles steps up for his signature drag flick, a good save by the Alton keeper falls to the feet of Matt Lumley, who eventually, after much anti skill, plays a square pass to the waiting Birch, who fakes a turn to the right before pushing the ball between keeper and defender on the line.
3 up at half time, great stuff for the relatively unfamiliar squad of Romsey. Coach Robertson stresses the importance of managing the game, “hold the lead, lets not concede in this game”. Words clearly not expressed strongly enough for CB Tim Bailey, who 2 minutes after the break receives a pass from the RB, remains static, pocket picked by the Alton CF and proceeded to kick the ball away preventing the open goal. 3-1, as the Alton forward sends Romsey keeper Nick Welby the wrong way from the resulting penalty flick.
Alton on top, the game balance has changed, many penalty corners and decisions going Alton’s way, Keeper Welby keeps them out time and time again earning him a man of the match honour. Romsey show that they are able to manage a game when under pressure, as goal 4 for the away side comes from clever hold up play by captain Tom Wigley. The fast counter attack breakaway seems to be all but over, until Rob Williams takes it upon himself to drive into the D and win a corner. Time for Tim Bailey to make amends for his previous defensive catastrophe. Sure enough a drag flick into the bottom right corner, couldn’t have been any closer to the right hand post.
Where was the Alton post man?
Now into the final stages of the game, Romsey have managed this sensibly. A defence splitting pass from Rhys Badman, looks to be going straight the Alton keeper, not in the mind of youngster Josh Harwood, who shows ‘Bolt’ like pace to put the Alton keeper under pressure. This pressure ensures the keeper misses the ball after a swipe of his stick, outside of his D, and a simple walk into the net for Harwoods second goal of the season for the men’s 1XI.
Job done, Romsey look forward to greeting Bournemouth 3XI to Romsey School next Saturday and hope to maintain their position at the head Hants Div 2.
U8s start the season in Bournemouth
Under 8s Bournemouth Tournament – Sunday 6th October
After only a few weeks of compromised training due to astro re-laying, using the tennis courts and heavy rain it was time for the first tournament of the year hosted by Bournemouth. There were 5 players continuing in the U8s from last year tournaments along with William who had played in a couple at the end therefore we had reasonable tournament experience available. However it was difficult to believe this in the first match against a New Forest team who appeared to have no match experience. It was a very slow start with the exception of Hamish who raced away on 4 occasions to score each time, giving Romsey a comfortable opening win.
Although we woke up a bit in the 2nd match, it was unfortunately against Trojans who were quick and determined from the start. Appearing in his first tournament having only picked up a stick a few weeks ago, Lawrence made numerous excellent and well-timed tackles to stop their attacks. Unfortunately they kept on coming and we found it difficult to clear the ball away from the goal-mouth. They scored too many for me to remember and surprisingly the Trojans coach claimed he wasn’t counting, but it was a big defeat.
We then took on Winchester and the whole team improved. Noah started to run back and win tackles before racing upto the Winchester goal, and Emma showed confidence in coming up from defence and nearly scoring a goal. The end result was 5-0 with 2 goals each from Noah and Hamish, and a first goal for Romsey for Grace. Well done Grace!
We then played a 2nd team from New Forest in a relatively even game, but they broke through a few tackles to score and Romsey couldn’t equalise. A 0-1 loss.
We then played Bournemouth 2 in our third game in a row which was pretty tough on the concentration and legs. William made his mark in this game with a few good tackles in defence and Rory and Elijah were like terriers trying to tackle anything that moved. We were 0-1 down until just before the end when Cherry swept a cross in from the top of the D to equalise, resulting in a 1-1 result.
The last game was against Southampton and a sweet-fuelled team played really well to win 4-1 with Hamish scoring all of them. It was a good result to finish on after a tough morning playing 6 x 10 minute games with only 2 breaks, a very compressed timetable – 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses. The experienced players got going and all contributed to the success of the team, and it will be exciting to see how the newcomers progress over the next few months. We will look forward to the next tournament on the 27th in Winchester.
M4s go down fighting !
Romsey mens 4s visited Hamble on Saturday the 5th of October on an overcast autumnal day.
PB was 10.30am and Romsey were blessed with an experienced midfield with Alexis Harris and Jim East controlling things early on.
After 10 mins things were pretty even and Romsey’s defence under the guidance of Lukasz Suleja was coping well and Rob Cav was linking well with Phil Orak who was having a strong start in midfield.
As the half wore on Ben H and Freddie O were working well on the wings getting the ball up to Sean Rawles and Carl Hendy who were finding good positions in the D.
Hamble remained strong however and started to apply a lot of pressure and despite great defending from Pete O’Hara , Nick Cooper and Mike Pooley shots were starting to rain down on the Romsey goal. This forced Ollie O into a string of great saves topped by one shot pushed over the bar with a fully out stretched stick, great reactions!
Hamble came again and the ball fell to their attacker just inside the D and as he wound up for a full hit, Mike Pooley lunged forward to the pitch of the ball and got his stick to it just as the attacker struck it forcing a wicked deflection causing the ball to rear up and strike him above the eye. Mike reeled back stunned but remained on his feet although needed first aid treatment straight away for a nasty cut. ( I am pleased to say after 3 stitches at Winchester hospital he is well)
The pressure finally told and just before half time Hamble scored 1-0!
The second half started well and Romsey were applying good pressure and moving the ball well through midfield with Ben and Alexis H working well to Find Barry H and Phil O who were working hard. On one attack the ball was pulled back to top D and Jim East latched on it and sent the keeper the wrong way and finished coolly 1-1!
This stunned Hamble who upped their game and surged forward forcing more good saves from Ollie O , however he could not keep them all out and Hamble scored two in quick succession 3-1!
Hamble continued their dominance and were moving the ball really well and scored again with a great shot which left Ollie unsighted. 4-1! Romsey weren’t done yet and a quick break from Alexis who found Sean in the D who slotted home calmly 4-2!
Unfortunately this was a false dawn and Hamble went on to score two more in the dying minutes to make the final 6-2.
Man of the match – Ollie O – great performance!
U10s shine in the sun at Bournemouth!
Romsey U10s kick-started their hockey season with an outstanding team performance at the Bournemouth tournament on Sunday 6th October.
The team of eight was unbeaten in all six matches, scoring 28 goals between them and only letting in a single one! All children played in every position demonstrating excellent versatility by responding well to coaching.
It was lovely to see them making full use of the pitch to keep possession and demonstrating some lovely passing which they had been practicing in training. There was lots of exceptional team play with everyone working for each other off the ball, a great recipe for success for the coming season.
Well done Caitlin, Grace, Camilla, Daisy, Anna, Henry, Charlie and Oscar.
M3s earn last gasp draw v Andover 3
Romsey deservedly gained a point from an even contest with their first home league game of the season on the new Romsey Community School pitch.
Romsey started the brighter in the first half, Jon Marsh and Alexis Harris winning the battles in the centre of the pitch to allow Romsey to build moves down their right and left.
Dan Blackman played the ball in from the right from a side line hit, and Luke W won the ball and fired in high past the keeper, only to see the goal chalked off as no other player had touched the ball before it entered the circle.
Lorne T won possession and drove down the right, only for his cross to be nicked away from the onrushing Romsey forward, and Harris’ blast from outside the circle came straight back off the post but Ben H and Luke W couldn’t get to the rebound before it was cleared.
As Andover gained some momentum the Romsey defence looked solid, Oli G in goal having no real saves to make as Gordon Farquhason, Aaron Shaw and Ben Parker linked up well, with Dan Newman able to clear and build moves down the right.
A goal less first half saw Romsey again start on top, but with Andrew Cadge off injured, followed by Gordon F, Andover gained possession in their own half and a well worked move saw them pass around the Romsey defence to go 1-0 leaving Oli G in goal no chance.
Romsey pushed hard for an equaliser but Harris and Marsh both had shots that went wide, and so Stuart Robertson on at the back, pushed up to support the attack as time was running out. He won the ball in the Andover half, and played a perfectly weighted ball just out of reach of the last Andover defender, in to the path of Romsey’s forward Colin Harwood, as the ball bounced up Harwood touched it first time past the on rushing keeper to take it out of his reach and in to the empty goal for a well deserved equaliser and spark jubilant celebrations at a point gained.
Men’s 4s Almost Force a Result
Men’s 4s played Gillingham at home on the new Romsey pitch, a fine Autumn day with a 2pm push back saw Romsey blood 3 new players and a host of u14s.
A brisk start saw Gillingham putting Romsey under a lot of pressure in the first 20 minutes of the match, fine defending from N Cooper, P O’Hara & L Suleja kept Gillingham at bay.
A brisk start saw Gillingham putting Romsey under a lot of pressure in the first 20 minutes of the match, fine defending from N Cooper, P O’Hara & L Suleja kept Gillingham at bay.
Gillingham were shocked and the goal was arguably against the run of play, this spurred them on and Romsey were under extreme pressure with the halftime looming , more good defending from Field , O’Hara senior and junior O O’Hara was frustrating Gillingham.
60 seconds before the halftime whistle Gillingham broke on their right and burst into the D and the attacker hit a ferocious shot into the top right hand corner. There was nothing O O’Hara could do about it.
As the second half started M Pooley started to assert himself in midfield finding D Blackman on the wing on more than one occasion. All three debutants had acquitted themselves well.
However Gillingham were quick on the counter attack and yet more strong defending from P O’Hara , N Cooper, L Suleja and Goal keeper O O’Hara kept them at bay. However it was not long before they finally made the pressure pay and scored 2-1 Gillingham!
Romsey had nothing to loose so in the last ten minutes they pushed hard for an equaliser and from a short corner C Pain sent a flick arrowing to the top left hand corner only to see the keeper make a fine save to deny him.
However it was not to be and the final score was Romsey 1-2 Gillingham
Man of the match – P O’Hara , excellent defensive performance.
U16 Boys sail past Fleet
A great win for a bare 11 which consisted of at least 4 U15 players . With the younger players in the squad, the defence was packed with the experienced U16 players . James , Thomas and Ben holding the back line. Will R sweeping just in front . Oliie and Rupert holding the wings , with Ewan and Jack Sluman in the midfield . Jack M and Barry upfront . Oli in goal .
The game started off with Romsey holding Fleet back and attacking their half for least 15 min, which produced a few short corners . Fleet started to ramp up once their u15 subs arrived and started to gain some control in midfield . They got a few short corners which where well defended by the back line.
The second half started off with both sides gaining short corners but Romsey with the better opportunities from the counter attacks . It was from one these counter attacks that the only goal was scored . A pass from Ben through midfield to Barry .Barry’s shot was going wide but was deflected into goal by Jack S. With 10 minutes left the Romsey legs started to give , and the passing started to fade . But the midfield kept running despite being tired and the defence held on for clean sheet .
A great win for team that hasn’t played together .Great skills from the younger players for holding and moving the ball , and also to older U16s who played in new positions.