Romsey bounced back terrifically from their heavy defeat in the opening match of the season, with an excellent disciplined performance away at Poole with just the bare 11 players.
Romsey started by keeping Poole in their own half, and this ensured the Romsey defence had time when Poole made advances, the returning veteran Dave Loescher played a fantastic role at the back, alongside Duncan Sanders, both providing an in impenetrable wall in front of Lukasz Suleja in goal.
Romsey built from this and their young midfield quartet starting to make in roads in to the Poole circle. Stan Cazaly down the right cut in and crossed for James Tower to pass to Sean Rawles, but his shot went outside the post.
Rawles made amends soon after when Matt Duke and Barry Hatch combined and he turned the ball in for his first ever Romsey goal, and put Romsey 1-0 up. It got better soon after when Romsey won a penalty corner and man of the match played the ball to Colin Harwood at the top of the circle, the captain played the ball back to Rawles who had advanced towards the goal and he turned the ball in for 2-0.
Romsey’s third goal was the icing on the cake in the first half, Harwood senior advanced with the ball and played a powerful pass in to the circle for Josh Harwood to run on to and calmly power the ball in to the opposite corner first time for 3-0 at HT.
Romsey were tiring but went hard again at the start of the second half, Matt Duke saw his penalty corner strike saved, before a further penalty corner from Rawles to Harwood senior resulted in a first time shot that bounced inside the post for 4-0.
Romsey continued to pressure and a fine pass from Simeon Field on the right, saw Cazaly cut in and cross the ball in to the circle, the ball fell to Rawles who reversed it in a close range for his hat trick and 5-0.
Romsey conceded an unfortunate penalty stroke when Suleja was adjudged to have fouled the Poole forward using his hand outside the circle, and a penalty corner led to a good worked goal for Poole to make the scoreline 2-5 in favour of Romsey, and Romsey were unlucky not to grab a sixth when Barry Hatch put the ball in at the far post only for play to be pulled back for a Romsey infringement.
The team performance with every player doing his bit, from his position was reflected in the result, and provides some good momentum for the weeks to come.
