Brave Diamonds lose out to Chichester flair

Chichester Vets 4 Andover Diamonds 0

After last weeks, eight goal victory Andover came into this fixture against second in the league Chichester, full of confidence & determined to cause an upset. Even though their hopes weren’t realised and the Home Side in the end won comfortably, Andover in many respects put in a better performance than in the previous week’s victory.

The Opening Half was a closely fought affair, the quality of the Chichester forwards meant that the Andover defence were under severe pressure, however defenders, Collins, Oostendorp, Panszczyk & Nutley, all produced one of their games of the season in keeping the Home forwards at bay.

Going forward the tireless running of Priestley-Cooper, Hoo & Mitchell meant that the Visitors also threatened with some well worked counter-attacks.

Just before the interval, Chichester gained their first & perhaps crucial piece of luck when they opened the scoring, on another day the Chichester shot which may have been going wide, would have been blown as dangerous instead it struck the unfortunate Collins on the thigh & dribbled into the goal.

The Second Half saw Andover come out in determined fashion & they dominated the play for the opening 15 minutes, sadly they couldn’t convert their pressure into goals with the Home Keeper making a number of excellent saves, including blocking a Mike Boyne penalty corner shot.

With the Diamonds tiring from their efforts to get an equaliser they left themselves exposed to Chichester counter-attack & midway through the half the Home Side scored their second from a wonderful individual goal. Minutes later victory was assured when again luck played its part, initially Andover were lucky when a Chichester penalty corner strike hit the post but that luck disappeared quickly as the rebound rolled straight to a Chichester player who tapped into an open goal.

To their credit Andover continued to press for a goal that their efforts deserved but with the luxury of plenty of space & tired defenders it was Chichester who were able to pass their way through to score their fourth & final goal.