Petersfield Give Southampton University a Lesson

On the back of defeat against Basingstoke the previous week, Petersfield regrouped on Saturday afternoon, narrowly missing the elements of the beautiful British weather. Thoughts by all were to regain strength and bounce back to a victory and keep at least the undefeated run at home going strong along with pressing for the ultimate goal of obtaining promotion into Hampshire Division 1.
As the Petersfield side gathered pitch side, they were provided with poppies for their shirts and sticks by Captain Grinstead before the team talk begun. After Grinstead spoke his words of wisdom and set the plan of attack, forward Harris added strategy with the forward line before Clay finished off with his motivating methods.

Clay led Petersfield into the warm up phase, ensuring everyone had kept themselves warm and completed stretches to keep them all in tip top condition for the cold fixture. Once stretching period came to a close, Petersfield broke off into their specific departments until the whistle of the umpire. On the signal, both Petersfield and Southampton Uni grouped together in the middle of the pitch and bowed their heads to, displaying their respect for those who had fallen with a minute’s silence. On the whistle, Petersfield grouped for their battle cry, and belted an almighty echo, to be heard by the thousands… 1, 2, 3 FIELD!

Grinstead had won the coin toss and chose to start with possession of the ball. With some cold bodies not quite warmed up, wayward passes were made, gifting Southampton Uni with possession almost immediately. Southampton Uni started with an all-out attack which caught Petersfield by surprise. In addition to this matter, Grinstead was soon left embarrassed as the assumption of laws of the game being implemented cost the side a goal – Today we were not playing in accordance to the stick block ruling, instead only going by the noise of two sticks clashing. Much to the disgust of those around, Southampton Uni took pleasure in utilising a well-rehearsed penalty corner routine and sending the ball home for a 1-0 lead. Petersfield re-set and gave positive support to all and immediately punched back with a goal as forward Harris strolled past many defender and reverse swept the ball past an oncoming keeper. Scores level, both teams increased the intensity and another penalty corner goal saw the visitors retake the lead. Petersfield again were not being held on the ropes and came back swinging, pinning Southampton Uni within their own corner until Lane provided a shot that shook the legs of the Southampton Uni side. Lane squeezed his shot past the keeper, into the corner of the goal, levelling the score once again. Southampton Uni appeared to have lost their heads a little after their hard work was written off twice, in great fashion. A midfield begun to form, involving; Grinstead, Gray, Hughes-Stanton, Edney and Alder whom intercepted, blocked out attacks and regained possession on many occasion. Interceptions made in the middle were beginning to make the difference as high intensity attacks were created on the turn over and Southampton Uni were left with luck that the only comparison would be an extension on their dissertation deadline. Lane sprinted into the circle, with only the keeper in his way. Lane, carefully selected his destination, wrapped the ball up and began to post it home yet a slight over rotation of the wrist had other ideas… Instead, sending the ball into outer space – with only the aim of gifting aliens with the sport of hockey. Petersfield began to change their style of play, carefully bouncing passes off one another, patiently waiting to exploit weakness in the Southampton Uni defence. Petersfield came close to further success yet their visiting goalkeeper had other ideas as he pick-pocketed the forward line with his stick in every 1v1 scenario. Southampton Uni created another penalty corner chance after a counter down the right soon found a stray foot. The Petersfield defence stood on the line and awaited the shot, whilst the remaining players set up for their sprint back to help the defence. The injection came in, a flick offloaded and ‘The Cat’ Smith displayed his acrobatic attributes with an elegant diving save (scoring 10 across the board from the judges), clearing the ball from any danger, allowing the defence to move out of their own circle and the defensive structure to be set up. Southampton Uni attempted to obtain further penalty corners but were denied after the defence of W. Atkinson, Hawkins, Marlow and Clay defended their goal as if they had built a brick wall, denying all attempts until the first half was drawn to a close.

After the breather and drinks break, Petersfield unleashed their battle cry once again and then set about their positions on the pitch. Petersfield restarted in a more controlled manner and let Southampton Uni come to them, forcing them into difficult situations with no further way forward. The use of channelling the players to Petersfield’s strong side and tackling in numbers forced the opposition to make errors where the home team were able to take full advantage with wing play created by the wing-backs which forced the overload. An attacking move down the left hand side, found Grinstead in the circle with both the ball and the keeper at his feet, a pass slipped to Hughes-Stanton on his left, allowed him to push the ball home into an open net, putting Petersfield in the lead. J. Atkinson added his name once again after the move begun from Marlow’s dazzling run down the right side out from defence. J. Atkinson now extends his goal scoring record to 7 games in which he has scored within, after his strike at goal was sent out of reach of the goalkeeper’s glove and into the net. With a 2-0 lead, the aggression levels of both teams began to rise, late, hard tackles began to encroach along with a deep sound of carbon splitting from sticks. One tackle heard the scream from Hind’s newly purchased weapon as its paintwork was firmly removed. Grinstead was the first and only player to inspect the sin-bin area after a tactical foul was made on the halfway point. During the time period of the card, players began to fall from both side where first aid was required a handful of times, where the only positive was that both teams were able to regain energy. Petersfield returned to full strength and ramped up the level of play. Quick bounce passes in the middle and link up play with the defence allowed the ball to be spread far and wise across the pitch and was continued until Southampton Uni were left out of position, therefore leaving gaps to exploited by Harris, J. Atkinson, Terry, Hind and Lane. The defence held out for as long as possible, but soon came crumbling down as Harris cut through and finished an effort from close range, increasing the lead to 5-2 where the fixture concluded.

Petersfield now lie in 3rd place within Hampshire Division 2, chasing 2nd place holders Chichester, with their next fixture facing Poole away.

Team; Smith, Marlow, W. Atkinson, Clay, Hawkins, Hughes-Stanton, Gray, Grinstead ©, Lane, Harris, J. Atkinson, Hind, Alder, Edney & Terry.

M.O.M – Stan Marlow
Champagne Moment – Alex Smith
D.O.D – Bruce Terry