Men’s 6s v. OMT 3s – 18.2.12 match report

Oxford  5-4  OMT

OHC men’s 6ths travelled to OMT on a cold February morning with a team strong on quality but short on quantity with just 11 names on the team sheet. Luckily everyone got there on time including our jet-lagged keeper Matt Fetzer and family who had already bumped into 6s debutant Dave Kingsland by the time the rest of the team arrived. 6s also welcomed back (with open arms) Ben Hudson who lined up with Dan Cowley in attack. Matt Nev was once again deployed in his stonewall sweeper role.  We were up against a comparatively youthful opposition – with the exception of their keeper who looked older than Matt F and Hoops combined.

6s opened as the stronger team, with Matt Bramall marauding piratically on the left and Tom and Sam pushing forward on the right. Despite Oxford threatening up front, OMT scored first with a soft goal against the run of play. 6s replied with 2 goals of our own, the first emphatically buried by Man of the Match Ben Hudson, who terrorized the OMT defence throughout the game, and a second from Dan with the first of his trademark goals of the day. As the half went on OMT had their fair share of attacking play but their strikers were unable to connect with some dangerous crosses leaving us to go in 2-1 up at the break.

The second half brought an OMT equalizer from a controversial short corner given for a Matt Nev clearance. This was soon followed by a short corner of our own, from which a fired-up Matt Nev banged one in with a bit of help from the OMT defence.  For the next ten minutes we were in charge, with goals from Dave K, ignoring cries of ‘leave it’ to put away a penalty corner, and a peach of a goal from Dan. This sparked OMT into action and they began flooding forward in numbers and at pace. As the minutes ticked down, 5-2 became 5-3, and then 5-4. OMT looked dangerous on penalty corners, despite Duracell-man Iain blazing in to charge them down. They hit the post on one short, and a strategically placed thigh on another.  With fatigue setting in Oxford held on for the win and came away with a hard earned, and nervy, victory.

Scorers: Dan Cowley x 2, Ben Hudson, Matt Neville, Dave Kingsland

Man of the Match: Ben Hudson

Match report by Huw Price