Petersfield Extend Unbeaten Run at Home

On a rainy Saturday afternoon, Petersfield welcomed The Isle of Wight 1st XI to a fixture which held much talk due to a previous 1-1 draw away. Petersfield were hopeful of an action packed game as on record 7.5 goals occur on the Bedales Pitch.

Petersfield limbered up and began their energetic warm up before the side undertook the directions laid out by Captain Grinstead. Clay added motivating words before Petersfield let loose with their battle cry, echoing across Petersfield.

Petersfield began with the ball and immediately attacked the heart of the island defence. A high press was set, and pressure applied in a flash in a bid to force mistakes which Petersfield could capatilise on. J. Atkinson caught a loose pass, meters from the circle, a change of speed and direction saw him fly into the circle, raise 'Thor's hammer' and unleash a power strike into the bottom right hand corner. Petersfield continued the forward drive and found themselves 2-0 up after Grinstead's lifted strike was out of the keepers reach. IOW frustrated with the quick fire goals began plotting their own attacks yet the Midfield of Terry, Alder, Gray and Grinstead positionally marked their options out of the game whilst the defence of Harris, Clay, Harding, Hall and Marlow cleared out any attack that managed to break through the Midfield, leaving keeper Smith to command the defence. Petersfield added a further 2 goals to their tally with Grinstead adding a second to his name and Harris adding the 4th goal, with a reverse strike after his initial dragflick was saved. IOW replied to the deficit with a late barge of attacks. This saw a goal line clearance from Marlow after Smith had been drawn from the line, a strong palm of Smith, deflecting a dragflick away from goal and then a goal for IOW as the shot deflected from Smith's pads into the net, leaving the half to settle at 4-1.

The second half didn't see much change to begin with. Petersfield still in full control of the game, preventing IOW from really threatening the goal. Petersfield scored another goal through J. Atkinson which extended the lead further yet then allowed IOW to formulate more appealing attacks as Petersfield held back. IOW took advantage of this defensive ploy from Petersfield and scored a second goal from a penalty corner.
Petersfield responded immediately, spraying the ball all over the pitch to all angles, forcing the opposition to sprint side to side to close gaps where Petersfield were able to advance. Verney came close to scoring his first goal for the Petersfield side but was unable to deflect the ball on target on two occasions. Petersfield continued pressing forward and J. Atkinson and Hughes-Stanton grabbed goals to further the lead whilst Hind was denied his goal after a back-stick foul was called. Petersfield continued their fine display and added a last goal to conclude the game 7-2 with Grinstead deflecting Hughes-Stanton pass across goal into the bottom corner to complete his hatrick, after a set of passes involving the majority of the Petersfield side which cut between the whole of IOW team.

Petersfield jump into 3rd place in Hampshire Division 2 and travel away to Winchester in their next fixture.

Team: Smith, Marlow, Clay, Hall, Harding, Harris, Terry, Gray, Grinstead, Alder, Hind, Verney, J. Atkinson, Hughes-Stanton & Edwards

MOM: Terry
CM: Verney
DOD: Verney