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BIRMINGHAM BRUMMIED |
After a disappointing result against Guildford during the previous weekend, a win was a must today against league leaders Birmingham University, if we were to stay in the title hunt. For league leaders, Birmingham's tactics were interesting, playing half court for long periods of the game and this resulted in a goalless first half despite Havant have territorial advantage, but unable to break down a Birmingham defence. After a fairly even first five minutes it was Havant that took the advantage putting pressure on Birmingham, who used the ariel ball to bypass the press. In a half of few chances Sunny had the first in the 9th minute at Havant's first penalty corner. The corner broke down and his shot clipped the outside of the upright. There were a few more Havant half chances, but we were unable to get a shot on target or had the ball turned over at the last moment. Birmingham had a chance in the 34th minute, but the deflection from a cross went wide of the Havant goal. Perhaps the best chance of the half was in the 35th minute when Havant won their second penalty corner. Jon Smedley flicked on target, the save rebounding to him on the penalty spot. He flicked the ball forward, which was saved again, with the rebound hitting his foot. For me the most significant act of the half was in the twelfth minute Ollie Nail at the age of 15 came on for his National League debut. Birmingham started the second half in a more aggressive manner. In the 37th minute they nearly took the lead, had it not been for a good save from Andy Isaacs and Mo Lester clearing the ball off the line to safety. Two minutes later Andrew Pett centred the ball from the left wing finding Ben Mackey, but his first touch let him down and the chance evaporated. |
With
a
few more chances for both sides the stalemate was broken with a goal
both created and scored by Sam Hatherley who had another good game at
centre half. Sam won the ball just outside our 25 passing it to Rodrigo
Levy who moved the ball to Jon Smedley wide on the right. He ran round
the defence along the back line slipping the ball back to Sam Hatherley
when approaching Todd Dudley in the Birmingham goal, and Sam bundled
the ball into the game in the 47th minute. Before the home crowd had finished celebrating Havant were 2-0 up when Pol Sams Irazola scored his first goal for Havant since joining us from Terassa. Pol having the ball at the top of the circle was driven right and fouled. David Howell with the whistle played a good advantage and Pol entered the circle wide on the right. On entering the circle he slapped the ball past Todd Dudley into the far corner of the goal. The last twenty minutes saw a more determined Birmingham team who won no less than six penalty corners, but were unable to take advantage of any of them. The last of these saw an excellent save from Andy Isaacs. Birmingham applied considerable pressure on a Havant defence in the last ten minutes, but they held firm bringing Birmingham's run of six victories to an end. Team Bath Buccaneers defeated Guildford 5-0 to leap frog Birmingham into top position on 19 points, Birmingham are now second on 18 points and Havant are in third position on 16 points. A good solid performance today and we are now back in the hunt. Chris Pickett |
