Solid opening performance at Fortress Hanson

The Men’s 3 broke past seasonal tradition by convincingly winning their opening league game. All the team were on time (bar a couple that struggled with the concept of meeting at 1.15 at the changing rooms!) and ready to battle on what was a hot sunny day with a pitch that was attempting to reflect the prior weeks pitch at Alton by being as dry as a camel’s wet bits.

Unfortunately, the team were already a man down before the game started due to Tom Lee being ill as well as venomously denying it was because he’d damaged his fingers typing the last match report.

The first half was a steely performance with the play in Andover’s favour and Hamble having little in the way of any opportunities in front of goal. Such was Andover’s dominance, halfway through the 1st half, Hamble was threatening to implode with in-team bickering and negativity which only played further into the Andover’s hands who demonstrated a positive attitude throughout the whole game.

This first half performance was ultimately rewarded with a goal from Rob Eldridge, who once again demonstrated that there is no point scoring a simple goal, promptly hitting the keepers head with the ball, slotting the rebound past the prone figure!

It stayed that way for the first half and with an inspirational tactical highlight by Sir Mike Boyne during the half time pep talk, the team started the 2nd half with a gusto. Though the opposition must have been listening in as they levelled soon after the start of the 2nd half.
This naturally riled the Andovian’s and after what was a barrage of attempts on goal, James Rochester, unlike his tackling, unapologetically fired in the winning goal.

As typical with a tight lead, Hamble thought they still had a chance and applied more pressure in front of goal towards the end but the Men’s 3’s stood firm with everybody getting stuck in with game winning tackles.

So, an excellent performance that was a win for so many reasons:

• Positive attitude
• Hard working
• A win at home
• An opening league game win

MOM was deservedly given to Sam Hughes who tirelessly got into space to receive the ball with driving runs into the Hamble half, well done Sam!

DOD was a tough choice with such a great performance and it was only right that it was given for a non-pitch related situation. The Captain (Matt Hodgson) won the honour for roping his parents into doing the tea. Some argued this was an expert piece of delegation but……….nah!