Men's 2nd XI Vs Penzance 3

Match Report 24/02/2024. Caradon 2 v Penzance 3..

Caradon travelled to Penzance for an early 10:30 push back and with the added A30 diversions meant everyone was up at the crack of dawn. Caradon were a few key player down, due to injuries and other commitments. The team arrived and warmed up ready for what would be a tough fixture. The whistle blew and Caradon started to dominate play moving the ball around the pitch. Ted and Sam, playing in the middle were controlling and distributing the ball to the wings and forwards, creating many opportunities and testing the keeper. After numerous free hits around the D, Caradon were awarded their first short corner and the whistle blew, everyone stopped apart from the PZ keeper who wiped out Sam, which the stand in captain thought it would be a good idea to have a gentle word with the keeper and umpire to let them know that this seemed quite unsportsmanlike. This seemed to set the tone for the rest of the game and did not get much better. So, the short corner was played and the out-coming ball from Tim seemed to go very wide of the trap and fell to Ted who smashed the ball towards goal where a gazelle like Tim created a lovely deflection into the goal. 1 -0 Caradon. The team continued to put pressure on PZ with Toby, Joe, Freddie, Fenton dominating the wide areas and wings putting the ball into the D for returning Ollie Hedges to exploit the keeper. The ball was saved and the rebound was slotted past the keeper by Carl. 2 -0 Caradon. It was at this point PZ became a bit more physical and seemed to unbalanced play. This made the back line of Tim, James, Jason, Issac N and Daniel having to work hard to hold things together. We looked a little ragged for a short period. PZ stared to make a comeback and after quite a few decisions that seem to go against us, the good hockey that we starting playing was now getting a bit heated. Gail kindly kept the subs revolving adding fresh legs to the squad and we started to mount further good play, but After many good saves by Toby in goal, PZ found the net, bringing it back to 2-1. The game from there on seemed to get a bit scrappy, with many decisions frustrating the Caradon players. A green card was then shown to Caradon for a passage of play which was duplicated by the opposition without any penalty being shown. The half time talk was one where we needed to settle down and not let decisions get us rattled. Play was initially good with all players battling for the next goal, and different combinations up front of Issac M and Ollie unfortunately not being able to find the net for the PZ keeper pulled out some good saves. The next goal went to PZ to bring it back to 2 -2. Caradon who were slightly rattled continued to create chances and again felt the rub of the decisions allowing further attacks. Caradon who were getting a little tired and frustrated, found the game stopped where the umpire be called the captain over to express the dissatisfaction of the comments and questions towards the umpire. It felt like we were certainly up against it for the final quarter. Caradon dug deep continued their quest for the win. Tensions and passions were high from both teams and became more stop start. At last Caradon were awarded a short corner 10 mins from the end. Caradon set up and it was highlighted to the umpire that one of their players was standing well into the half of the attacking half. Whistle blew and the result was to send the captain off for the last ten minutes of the game. Unknown reason, but this spurred the fight for the next short corner to be awarded. Caradon set up and repeated another well executed goal deflected in by Tim. The last ten minutes of the game seen more end to end play and thankfully the final whistle blew, meaning a 3-2 victory to Caradon. A strange game with all players giving everything to grind the game to a close, even though we played nearly a quarter with ten players. This may well have been my fault for trying to help the umpires from the pitch, although the last comment came from the pitch somewhere. Onwards and upwards next week and well played by the younger players who never gave up and relentlessly continued to battle. The match report possibly doesn’t reflect the hard work and passion of Caradon players, but you certainly got stuck in and believed we could get that final goal. Well done Caradon 2’s. MoTM went jointly to Tim and Ted for great control and composure on the pitch and in front of goal. DOD - Carl for talking and sometimes just looking at the umpires.