Men 1st XI
Matches
Sun 27 Oct 2019
Taunton Vale
1
5
Andover Hockey Club
Men 1st XI
B Anthony (2'), (40'), (63'), A Haigh (57'), D Allen (61')
Taunton Vale v Andover

Taunton Vale v Andover

Ian Bowry29 Oct 2019 - 08:58
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https://www.andoverhc.co.uk/te

EH Men's Tier 2 Championship victory

Report written by 'Unscacapuntas' Haigh

On Sunday, Andover 1s faced a tough opponent and arguably their toughest game so far this season on paper. Facing Taunton away, who are placed middle table, in an equivalent league 3 divisions above the Hants/Surrey Div 2 side, and one league below national league status. To most this would have already been a write off.

Andover came out the blocks unnerved by their opponents after an encouraging and settling team talk by Captain George Allmark. The away team ventured into the game with a high level of spirit that seemed to overwhelm the home side, leading for them to only find that they had left Charlie Scowen unmarked on the baseline, who put a sympathetic but lethal ball across the Taunton keeper and into the path of Ben Anthony who had the simplest of finishes of tucking the ball past a standstill keeper and into an empty net. 0-1.

Andover continued to work hard all over the pitch, and understandably, it being the second game of the weekend for a lot of the team, tiredness began to wear into the legs. Despite this, Andover rallied together and defended as a unit and defied the odds to hold out a clean sheet until half time. Angus Haigh and Mark Eggington barked orders to the team from the back, ensuring they all had a man, in an effort to prevent the pressure from the home side resulting in a goal. Fortunately, the visiting team made it out unscathed after a commendable effort.

HT 0-1.

Andover came out once again, all guns blazing as confidence grew minute by minute. Sion Roberts and David Edwards continued to make themselves an option all over the pitch, creating overloads that the opposition couldn’t handle. Space grew in the middle for our strong ball carriers of Ivan Daley and Liam O’Sullivan to take; as well as for more commanding positional players for the likes of George Allmark and Jack Trott to control, as Andover began to pick apart their EH Cup first round opponents. As the nerves faded away, Andover found spaces in and behind the Taunton defence more frequently, especially when Haigh drifted an aerial to Scowen who had yet again found space and distributed a pinpoint pass to Ben Anthony at the top of the D who hit a scorching reverse stick shot into the top left corner. 0-2.

Andover did not let up there with a constant wave of attacks hitting the Taunton defence, earning more outcomes after Scowen had ground out the hard yards to reach a pass and win a short corner after hitting a defenders foot in the circle. There was no intricate Penalty Corner routine this time as the ball was injected out to the top for Beefy Unscacapuntas (Haigh) to launch a sharpened low and hard dragflick into the bottom corner of the goal. 0-3.

Tauntons confidence had been clearly knocked, which only opened up the door to more Andover chances. It was Dan Allan who was found at the top of the D this time and all mouths dropped around the pitch as he moved into a reverse stick shooting position for the second time this weekend. The striker lashed his shot into the roof of the net, beyond the stranded keeper, leaving everyone (including perhaps himself) a little surprised that he now has it in his locker. 0-4.

The game had been pretty much closed out and Andover were already packing their bags for the next round, but the away side were still hungry for more to take home after their trip to the West Country as Ben Anthony grabbed his hat-trick after more link up play from Scowen and Sam Goacher created space for Anthony at the back post who chipped the keeper with a high level of finesse on his reverse stick. This was a representation of Andover’s ruthlessness and class throughout the whole game. 0-5.

The visiting side began to think too far ahead rather than on the game in hand and switched off for a couple of minutes. To the leading sides annoyance, the home team found a goal after one of their many route one searching balls found its way to another white shirt and into the goal at the back post. 1-5.

FT TAUNTON VALE 1-5 ANDOVER

Sunday was a day where Andover proved they were able to play and compete at much higher levels and sent a message that they are not in the Tier 2 Cup just to make up numbers.

(Huge shoutout to stand in Vets keeper, David Rutherford who commanded his D with authority and manned his defence remarkably.)

Match details

Match date

Sun 27 Oct 2019

Kickoff

12:30

Meet time

09:30

Instructions

Meet Wolversdene.
Taunton Vale Sports Club
Gipsy Lane
Staplegrove
Taunton
TA2 6LL
Team overview
Further reading