Match Report : Nigel Spencer-Knott

Result : LOSS 2-7 vs Rickmansworth 3

Tankards knew they were in for a tough game right from the start when Ricky’s left back , Tim Martin began dictating play with powerful arial deliveries to his forwards, over the heads of our midfield Simon Holmes, Dave Richardson and Oliver Yaoz. Their faster and younger forwards received the ball well and raced past Tankards’ defenders. They missed several of their first shots fortunately. They managed better after ten minutes and Tankards’ substitutes came on to try to stem the flow. This was a completely different team to the one Tankards beat 3 – 2 with ten men on 26th November. They scored three goals fairly quickly but then Tankards pressure asserted itself in their goal mouth and Simon scored. A few minutes later he scored again with an excellent move including David Richardson. By this time Patti had been redeployed to sweeper but still could not stop the assaults on our goal. They scored two more before the half time whistle. 2 – 5 down.

Tony Mastroddi was able to send useful arial passes to our forwards but they could not collect or control the ball and this tactic had to be abandoned. Mean time pressure on Tankards goal continued, Fin Sheridan-Licata made a number of superb interventions and stops reducing Rickmansworth’s goal tally and in the forward line Sohan Dhana did his best to recover the ball whenever he could but the opposition were too strong for us. Tim Martin scored from a penalty corner flick which was far too powerful for Fin to save and another came from three of their forwards combing well and running round our defence. Result 2 – 7 according to the umpires Mike Birman and Biffi (Nick Robinson) who did well to control this game.

There were four man of the match recommendations: Simon indefatigable play and useful interventions with superb drive throughout the game, as well as two goals, a possible third goal was saved twice. David Richardson was also a blessed addition to the team. Sohan Dhana has improved greatly this season and was pleased to voice his recommendations to the full team at half time. However, Fin gained most Man of the Match votes and we all appreciate that he has only recently taken on the role of Goal Keeper. Tony Mastroddi had to leave soon after the game so we didn’t hear his usual wise words, he had a party to go to – his Mum’s 100th birthday.